Canadian law worries U.S. burley tobacco growers

BRISTOL -- Kevin Leonard has always had problems to deal with in the 40-plus years he has been growing burley tobacco on his Washington County farm.

There is the weather -- often too dry, this year too wet. And then there are the shifting political winds out of Washington -- the latest being the regulation of tobacco by the Food and Drug Administration.

A new obstacle for tobacco growers comes from farther north -- Canada, where the House of Commons last week unanimously passed a bill that U.S. tobacco observers say could eliminate the Canadian market for U.S.-grown burley tobacco, a variety commonly blended with other types of tobacco and laced with flavors to smooth its harsh taste.

Known as C-32, the Canadian "Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act" seeks to ban the sale and production of flavored cigarettes and cigars.

The Canadian bill's supporters say that C-32 would prevent the production of candyor fruit-flavored mini-cigars or cigarillos that are targeted at children. During 2007, about 25 percent of that country's 15to 17-year-olds smoked one of these mini-cigars, said Colin Carrie, parliamentary secretary for Canada's minister of health.

"By amending the Tobacco Act [with C-32] we can help prevent more young people from experimenting with an addictive substance," Carrie said before the bill passed in the House of Commons on June 17.

But the legislation now making its way through the Canadian Senate could be disastrous for Appalachian tobacco farmers, said Tony Banks, assistant director of the Virginia Farm Bureau's commodity marketing department.

"This is one more market that could be closed, and tobacco farmers can't afford to lose one more market," Banks said. His agency is one of several farm groups leading the fight to prevent C-32 from becoming law.

Most burley tobacco is the U.S. is grown in central Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and western North Carolina. Last year, those regions produced 10.6 million pounds of burley. Farmers in Virginia's Lee, Scott and Washington counties produced 1.9 million pounds of the crop last year.

Burley tobacco is typically used in cigarettes and pipe blends, but because the variety has almost no natural sugars, it produces a very dry, harsher aroma when it burns.

Banks said burley tobacco is often mixed with smoother Turkish and flue-cured tobacco varieties to make what Canadians call "American-blend" cigarettes. And to lessen burley's harsh taste, chemical flavorings are added to those cigarettes. That's why farm advocates are worried about the C-32 ban.

"The bottom line is the legislation has been written too broadly and is threatening to impose far-reaching, negative implications on burley growers," said George Marks, president of the Burley Stabilization Corp. in Knoxville, Tenn.

Marks said the legislation would force Canadian tobacco manufacturers to make only cigarettes that did not use flavorings, wiping out the Canadian market for burley tobacco. It also would prevent American tobacco companies from using burley in cigarettes to sell on the Canadian market.

Marks also fears that the Canadian legislation might prompt other countries to draft similar flavoring bans. Marks said that would be disastrous given that the U.S. exports 70 percent to 80 percent of its burley crop each year.

"No less than the future of the burley tobacco growing industry is at stake," Marks said. "If other countries follow Canada's lead, the . . . market for American-style tobacco products will be nonexistent outside the U.S."

Mac McLean is a staff writer for the Bristol Herald Courier.