What farm leaders think about the coming tobacco season

(Tobacco Farmer Newsletter) A penny per pack increase in the price of cigarettes could really help tobacco producers: At least, that's how Craig West (right), a flue-cured grower from Fremont, N.C., figures that a one-cent increase in cigarette prices could rescue the farm economy.
"One pound of tobacco makes 20 packs of cigarettes, and the average price of cigarettes now is $5.50 pack. On our farm (he farms with his brother Brad), we grew 900,000 pounds of tobacco last year, so we produced the tobacco for 18 million packs worth $99.9 million. We got $1.70 a pound for it. At that price, a pack has about six cents of tobacco in it. If the companies would add one cent for the farmers, that would equal a 25 cents a pound in the farmer price.
You can't quantify what that would do for farmers, and I don't see how one cent a pack would affect consumption much." Continued