Midstaters earned $31.5M in '09 as cigar demand soars

(The Daily Item) Major international tobacco conglomerates, looking to buy up quality cigar filler, have moved into the Valley and struck alliances with Amish and Mennonite farmers famed for avoiding anything as modern as electricity. "The big boys — R.J. Reynolds and Phillip Morris— are here," said Norm Conrad, an educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension, in Mifflinburg. "They're buying our tobacco." What's fueling the demand is the availability of millions of tons of Pennsylvania Seedleaf, rich, full-bodied Type 41 tobacco, which is commonly grown in Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties. Finer, flue-cured cigarette tobacco blends — grown mostly in the warmer climates of Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee — are increasingly less in demand because people are smoking fewer cigarettes. Cigars, though, continue to be popular and have led to the growth of cigar bars, clubs and shops. Continued