A United States Department of Agriculture report released Friday predicts the number of tobacco acres harvested in Kentucky will decrease 15%, compared to last year, to 58,000 acres - a new all-time low.
That’s a far cry from the 221,650 acres harvested by Kentucky farmers in 1999.
Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative General Manager Steve Pratt said the trend of fewer people smoking and the rising popularity of vaping - which doesn’t use tobacco - is contributing to weak demand for Kentucky tobacco.
He said some tobacco companies have downsized or canceled contracts to buy the crop this past year, causing some farmers to either quit growing it or switching to other products like livestock or hemp.
“You have very few farmers that grow only burley tobacco and nothing else,” Pratt said. “So they just dropped the burley and are concentrating on the other industries they have on the farm. And some of them have gotten into hemp.”
Kentucky acreage harvested of burley tobacco, used to make cigarettes, is predicted to decrease by 14% this upcoming year, down to 50,000 acres. Acres harvested of dark-fire tobacco, used to make smokeless or chewing tobacco, is predicted to decrease by 27%, to 8,000 acres.
University of Kentucky Tobacco Extension Specialist Andy Bailey said some tobacco farmers are experimenting with growing new types of tobacco from the east coast like Connecticut shade, used for cigar wrappers. But he said it will be hard to find new uses for tobacco that make up for the large-scale acreage and revenue brought in by traditional tobacco products.
“You know, those markets aren’t going to replace the acres we have now for the uses of moist snuff and cigarettes,” Bailey said. “[Dark-fire tobacco] is a declining crop, especially burley, but it’s still going to be around for a long time,” Bailey said.
USDA also predicts the number of acres tobacco harvested in the U.S. will decrease by 16% in 2019, to 244,040 acres.
