
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993                   TAG: 9306150091
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ABINGDON                                LENGTH: Short

TOBACCO CONFERENCE TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES

The annual conference of 9th District tobacco farmers hosted by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, will be at 10 a.m. Monday at the Martha Washington Inn.

Speakers include Charles O. Whitley of the Washington-based Tobacco Institute; G.B. Midden Jr., president of the Council for Burley Tobacco; William Myers, managing director of the Burley Stabilization Corp.; and Phil Blevins, Virginia Cooperative Extension Service.

There is no cost to attend. Boucher has hosted these conferences since 1982.

"During the 1992 sales season, Southwest Virginia's burley tobacco farmers took the largest crop in history to market and on average received an increase of six cents per pound over the 1991 sales price," Boucher said.

"However, after many years of rising prices and increasing quotas, our region's growers now face new challenges. We will discuss these challenges with experts in the tobacco industry," he said.

More information is available from Boucher's constituent service office at 628-1145.

- Southwest bureau

by CNB