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New FDA regulations, pending Canadian ban on burley blends threaten state's biggest crop
Jump to full article: Bowling Green (KY) Daily News, 2009-06-21
Author: ROBYN L. MINOR, The Daily News
Intro: Kentucky's tobacco industry will be able to conduct this growing season as usual, but farmers question what new FDA regulations and a possible Canadian ban on burley will mean for the future.
"Contracts are being signed as we speak today," Tommy Bale said of the sales contracts farmers make with tobacco companies, meaning this season won't be impacted.
Bale is not only a farmer, but also president of Bale Tobacco Marketing, with a tobacco weigh station in Glasgow with Phillip Morris International and elsewhere. Phillip Morris exports what it purchases in Glasgow to manufacturing plants outside the United States, including to Canada.
"From the knowledge that I have, the (Canadian) regulation is overkill," Bale said. "It was good that it originally targeted cigars that had a candy flavor, but now it will eliminate any flavorings at all."
That means that Kentucky burley - which is blended with flu cured tobacco - could be banned from the nation.
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