FLUE-CURED MARKET COMING TO AN END

Selling flue-cured this year got more complicated after Hurricane Florence, but there is reason to think buyers may not have been able to fill their orders from the storm-ravaged crop. In happier times (photo), buyers at the American Tobacco Exchange warehouse in Wilson, N.C., had more to choose from at the sale on August 29. Al Whitfield (middle left) was the auctioneer and Tommy Faulkner (right) led the sale. Auction warehouses are operating this week and next week, maybe longer if there is a demand. Sales volumes are not available yet, but Hurricane Florence definitely lead to a reduction. But the quality loss has been the bigger problem. "We have had so much dark leaf since the storm," says Tommy Faulkner, auction manager at American Tobacco Exchange (ATE) in Wilson, N.C. "This was a difficult crop for everybody." Prices have ranged all across the scale, says Faulkner. "We have sold at 25 cents a pound to $1.85 a pound and every price in between." A meaningful average price will be hard to obtain since Florence arrived just as the leaf tobacco was coming to market. "It is hard o compare the prices of lugs and cutters to the price of leaf." Buyers appear to think this crop will have a use somewhere. They bought ii all. "All the tobacco we offered found a home at some price," Faulkner says. Burley harvest in Kentucky ended in the first two weeks of October. Production was probably reduced 20 to percent by rains in September. But the quality held up, says Bob Pearce, Kentucky Extension tobacco specialist, University of Kentucky. "There has been a little houseburn," he says. "The color looks pretty good." Sanitizing greenhouse trays with steam at 176 degrees has proven very effective as a means of tray sanitation, says Matthew Vann, N.C. Extension tobacco specialist clear. Several self-contained units are available on the market, and information you can use to build  your own units can be obtained from N.C. State. (Check with your county agent.) There is very little benefit to the relatively old-fashioned method of washing with bleach or other chlorine-based ma-terials and, in fact, there is more potential for harm than good, Vann says. "You need to pres-sure-wash trays before steaming to remove plant and media debris," he says. Only a few of the new tray steamers have been acquired by farmers in Kentucky, says Pearce. "But I think growers could get some benefit from using them, he added. There can be no doubt: Tobacco companies are looking for ripe to overripe flue-cured upper-stalk leaf. Lemon style is just not in vogue any more, says Vann. "To produce overripe tips, be sure to fertilize properly, concentrating on applying enough nitrogen. Then, when you think your crop is ready to harvest, give it 10 or 15 more days." We may eventually be selling to a niche market for dead ripe tips, since no one else in the world can produce this type of leaf, he adds. Flue harvest ended in North Carolina before October 15, says Vann. The Eastern Belt was essentially finished by the beginning of thee month and the Old Belt wrapped up right as some of the light frosts arrived a couple weeks back.  Bad news from a major competitor: Burley revenue in Malawi, our strongest competitor for the world burley market, rose 60 percent in this year's marketing season, which ended in August. In addition, reliable reports from dealers in the United States indicate that buyers are searching out and buying uncommitted burley stocks in Malawi wherever they can. A reasonable assumption: The market thinks that U.S. burley can't meet industry needs when it comes to market in a few weeks and that Malawi is the best substitute. Final word on the 2018 crop: The USDA's latest Crop Report--the last that will appear in calendar 2018--confirmed the stunning losses in yield late in the season to the hurricane in North Carolina and extreme rain damage in Kentuc-ky. Flue-cured production in the current crop is projected to total 342 million pounds, the report says, down 26 percent from 2017. Bur-ley tobacco production is expected to total nearly 113 million pounds, down about 30 percent from last year. Following are projections by type, plus projections by state for flue-cured and burley. Flue-cured: North Carolina--252.8 million pounds, down 29.5 percent. Georgia    --22.5 million pounds, down 14.2 percent. South Carolina--20.4 million pounds, 19 percent. Virginia--46.2 million pounds, down 9.2 percent. Burley: Kentucky--90.1 million pounds, down 30.2 percent. Tennessee--10.2 million pounds, down 43.3 percent. Pennsylvania--9.6 million pounds, down 7.2 percent. Virginia--1.7 million pounds, down 22.7 percent. North Carolina--1.36 million pounds, down 5.5 percent. Fire-cured: 57.7 million pounds, down 14.3 percent. Southern Maryland (Pennsylvania): 3.22 million pounds, down 25.4 percent. Dark air-cured: 26.44 million pounds, up 30.1 percent. Pennsylvania Seedleaf: 5.52 million pounds, up 27.7 percent. Total U.S. (all types): 548 million pounds, down 23 percent from 2017. Mark your calendar: N.C. Tobacco Day, December 6, 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Johnston County Extension Center, Smithfield, N.C. Lunch will follow the program. ADVERTISING