Tobacco Planting Rising; Sales Down

Source from:  07/29/2007 news14.com By: Heather Moore  07/30/2007

Though cigarette sales are down in North Carolina, tobacco is still the state's golden leaf, with farmers growing more of the plant this year than they have in many recent years. At Vick Family Farms, tobacco has been the top crop for four generations. Despite cigarette sales dropping 18 percent in the state this year, the Vick family planted more than every before this time. "The year of the buyout we were down to 260 acres and we have grown," said Jerome Vick, co-owner of the farm. "This year we have over 500 acres of tobacco. So we didn't have a buyout, we had a buy-in." According to the N.C. Department of Agriculture, that is a statewide trend. This year, farmers planted more than 160,000 acres of tobacco, up 8,000 from last year. This is because American tobacco is now more competitive on the global market. Tobacco planting is up. "Prices did decrease after the buyout, so we're more inline with foreign competition," said Scott Bissette, international marketing specialist with the Department of Agriculture. "We're still higher, but we're much closer than we've been in price." Nearly half of Vick's tobacco is sold in other countries, and he said he doesn't care who's buying it, as long as it keep bringing in the money. "Tobacco's been good to me, and I have confidence it's going to continue to be good in the future," said Vick. The Department of Agriculture ranks N.C. number one in the country last year in tobacco production value. Enditem