By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Georgia tobacco growers won’t be allowed to grow as much tobacco
in 2004 as they did in 2003.
Each year, the U.S. government calculates the U.S. tobacco
quota, the amount farmers can grow and get government price
support for.
Less
Georgia growers will be allowed to grow about 54 million pounds
of flue-cured tobacco in 2004. That’s around 16 percent less
than in 2003, said J. Michael Moore, a tobacco agronomist with
the University of Georgia Extension Service.
“This means Georgia tobacco growers will be spending less for
chemicals (and) equipment and possibly holding off on any
improvements to their farms,” Moore said. “This will further
negatively affect the rural economies that surround tobacco
production in Georgia.”
Farmers grow flue-cured tobacco in five states. Depending on the
amount a state was able to harvest the previous year, the actual
quota cut for a state could be more or less than the overall
U.S. cut.
Because of heavy rain, Georgia farmers harvested less tobacco
than
the government said they could in 2003. Despite this, they were
still able to harvest more than they did in 2002, when the crop
was devastated by disease.
The national tobacco quota will be 471.3 million pounds in 2004,
about 55 million, or 10.4 percent, less than 2003. The U.S.
quota is now less than 50 percent of its 1998 level.
U.S. tobacco companies plan to buy 254.3 million pounds of
tobacco in 2004. That’s about 10 percent less than they planned
to buy in 2003.
Cigarette makers are required to report each year to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture how much flue-cured tobacco they
intend to buy from U.S. growers.
The USDA includes the companies’ buying intentions in the quota
formula. They also consider the U.S. export average over the
previous three years and the reserve supply of the Flue-Cured
Tobacco Cooperative, the farmer-owned co-op that runs the
federal program.
The 2004 tobacco quota cut is drastic. But it could have been
much worse. Last week, the co-op sold about 45 million pounds of
tobacco. This reduced the stockpile. Without this last-minute
sale, the quota cut was expected to be 22 percent.
Buyout
Tobacco farmers have asked Congress to buy back their quota and
end the federal tobacco price-support program. They feel the
program has become obsolete and hurts them on the world market.
It was established in 1938.
But a buyout will be a hard sell in Washington, members of
Georgia’s legislative delegation told about 400 Georgia farmers
Dec. 15 at the UGA Rural Development Center in Tifton, Ga.
Tobacco-state lawmakers are outnumbered 10-to-1. Several buyout
bills have been dropped or have become stagnated in
Washington.
Settlement check
But some help is on the way, Moore said. Georgia growers can
expect to get their annual phase II check around the first of
the year. They’ll get 30.5 cents per pound for quota they owned
or grew in 1998. If they rented the quota, that amount will be
halved with the quota owner.
The money is the farmers’ share of a 1998 master settlement
between tobacco companies and 46 states’ attorneys general to
compensate the states for health problems associated with
tobacco use.
Georgia tobacco growers will have a chance to vote to keep or
end their federal program through a mail-in ballot starting Jan.
5. Voting will last for 30 days. Growers vote on the program
every three years.
