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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 7, 1994                   TAG: 9412070098
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BURLEY QUOTAS ESCAPE CUTTING

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said an agreement has been reached to maintain quotas for burley tobacco farmers at current levels through the end of this century.

The agreement follows months of negotiation among members of Congress, burley and flue-cured stabilization cooperatives, and leading cigarette manufacturers.

``With this agreement, our region's burley growers can be assured that their worst fears of quota cuts in the range of 40 percent will not be realized,'' Boucher said.

The agreement will maintain the nationwide burley basic quota of 540 million pounds, which was in effect this year and now will continue for seven years. Of that amount, cigarette manufacturers agreed to buy 375 million pounds annually for the domestic market. The remaining 165 million pounds is the projected level of burley exports, Boucher said.

Boucher said the agreement also provides that cigarette manufacturers will buy 410 million pounds of burley tobacco from stabilization cooperatives, which are now storing it, at a 10 percent discount from the cooperatives' cost. That discount will be satisfied by applying no-net-cost funds now in the hands of the cooperatives.

In 1995 and 1996, it is anticipated that growers will not have to pay a no-net-fee when their tobacco goes to market.

``The practice of American cigarette manufacturers in purchasing large tonnages of foreign-grown tobacco had, in recent years, undermined the stability of local tobacco markets,'' Boucher said. ``We have now solved that problem in a way which benefits all parties concerned.''

by CNB