Tobacco Asia

Tobacco Asia 57 The leaf dealer Smith reflected the opinion of most observers of this market when he said. "Under the circumstances, it's a miracle that so much of the crop turned out as well as it did." The chronology of a bad year The 2024 flue-cured crop began with great prom- ise in terms of field and production, says Graham Boyd, executive director, Tobacco Growers Asso- ciation of NC. "But by June that potential began to dimin- ish. Many growers went most of June with zero measurable rainfall and record high temperatures." July brought with it a series of severe weather pat- terns that included a lot of rain and strong winds. Numerous single events could have as much as eight to nine inches of rain in a short period of time accompanied by 50 mile per hour or stron- ger winds. Such weather is typical in the summer months in the Southeast, Boyd said, but usually it is isolated in terms of geographical impact. What was most unusual this summer was that the systems moved in solid lines from west to east across the state and nearly every grower was impacted. "A majority of our growers found them- selves having to re-stand wind-blown tobacco an average of three times, and some even experienced as many as five to six wind events." August brought with it the first North Car- olina landfall hurricane of the season, Hurricane Debby. The path it traveled from Florida to Penn- sylvania was such that it touched every acre of to- bacco grown on the eastern seaboard. Growers went into "salvage" mode to miti- gate the effects of Hurricane Debby. "It was im- pressive how successful our farmers proved to be at efforts to mitigate storm impacts," said Boyd. "Everything from re-standing tobacco once again, to adjustments in fertility and curing practices to try and rescue the crop and deliver the best quality possible." A south Georgia greenhouse was crushed by Hurricane Debby.

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