Tobacco farmers expect Philip Morris to announce station closure

GREENE COUNTY, Tenn. (tricities.com) Local tobacco farmers expect bad news this week after years of shrinking sales. They're worried Philip Morris will close a key facility in Northeast Tennessee.
For decades, Greene County boasted the biggest burley hauls in the state. But by 2010, the county had slipped to sixth as fewer and fewer farms cultivated the cash crop.
The Philip Morris receiving station in Midway (also called Tennessee Valley Tobacco Services) still takes in 6,000,000 pounds of burley tobacco a year -- most of it from Upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Continued