ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190036
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DANVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
Flue-cured tobacco production in Virginia is expected to be up 17 percent this year, and market prices may increase because much of the tobacco crop in North Carolina was damaged by Hurricane Bertha.
However, predicting demand on the tobacco warehouse floor is like forecasting the weather.
``You can never tell until the market opens and they start buying it,'' James Jones, a tobacco specialist with the Virginia Cooperative Extension, said Thursday.
The Virginia Agriculture Statistics Service said flue-cured tobacco yields are expected to average 2,200 pounds per acre. That would be higher than last year's average yield of 1,935 pounds but below the record-high 2,420 pounds harvested in 1994.
If the forecast holds, Virginia farmers will produce 77 million pounds of tobacco on 35,000 acres, the statistics service said.
Tobacco auctions begin Aug. 1 in Virginia, but Jones said sales will be slow for the first few weeks because the crop is being harvested later than usual.
B.C. Langston of the Agricultural Marketing Service in Raleigh, N.C., estimated that growers in North Carolina had lost 80 percent, or 88 million pounds, of their crop to last week's storm. Growers from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and northern North Carolina have not reported huge losses.
``I hate to see other parts of the country have bad luck, but it probably will help the Old Belt in Virginia as far as market demand goes,'' Jones said.
Harry Lea, president of the Danville Tobacco Association, said the hurricane's wrath might not shift demand as much as Virginia growers would like because North Carolina had such a productive growing season.
Langston said he couldn't estimate specific dollar losses each grower would endure.
``Some tobacco may be harvested, and some may not,'' he said. ``It's a major mess.''
Normally, North Carolina growers use mechanical harvesting machines to pull their tobacco. With the crop blown over, their labor costs could rise. They may need to hire labor to set up the tobacco and harvest it.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB