
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995                   TAG: 9511100067
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FLUE-CURED TOBACCO PRICES TOP LAST YEAR'S

The 58-day flue-cured tobacco sales season ended on Oct. 30 with the average price increasing substantially and the amount being bought by a growers' cooperative to support the price at a record low.

Gross sales in all markets amounted to 924.9 million pounds at an overall market average of $179.40 per hundredweight, an increase of $9.13 over last year, the Flue-cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corp. reported. Tobacco bought by the cooperative amounted to 11.7 million pounds, or 1.27 percent of the season's tobacco marketed.

In the North Carolina-Virginia Old Belt market, gross sales totaled 264.8 million pounds, up nearly 10 percent over last year. The average price per hundredweight was $180.67, an increase of $9.99 over last year and the highest average since 1984. The stabilization corporation bought 1.59 percent of the crop.

Flue-cured is the major type grown in the Southeastern United States.

- Staff report

by CNB