Flue-Cured Tobacco Container Corporation Grant

To cut handling costs, tobacco manufacturers transitioned from the traditional burlap sheet wrapping to tobacco baled with cardboard slip-sheet and wire. Historically, the buyer, the warehouseman and the grower had shared the cost of the burlap sheet equally, with each paying $.30. The new system placed the entire cost on the grower at a time of rising production costs and sharp tobacco revenue decline. Growers’ cost-cutting measures placed a further strain on the flagging economic stability of the community. The FCTCC will use money from a Qualified Agricultural Program grant to reimburse farmers up to a half-cent per pound of tobacco marketed in 2002 to help defray packaging supplies. Farmers apply for their reimbursement and requests are cross checked with warehouse and USDA-FSA data.

Flue Cured Tobacco Container Corporation P.O. Box 12004 Raleigh, NC 27605