Contracting Burley

The US leaf-tobacco industry is still weighing up the likely fallout from Alliance One International’s decision to stop buying US Burley, according to Christopher Bickers.
In the latest edition of his Tobacco Farmer Newsletter, Bickers quoted Tennessee extension specialist Eric Walker as saying the big Burley-producing counties of middle Tennessee, Macon, Trousdale and Smith, would clearly take a major hit.
‘For the state as whole, he thinks we might possibly see an 80 percent crop, and it could certainly be smaller,’ Bickers wrote.
‘The effect on Burley plantings is still unclear, but no one doubts that Tennessee will be the state most affected.’
(The Newsletter’s email address has changed and is now cebickers@aol.com.)