Declining tobacco crop sizes are stabilizing markets hit in past years by oversupply, according to Universal Corp. President George Freeman.

“Crop sizes have declined sufficiently to stabilize the markets,” Freeman said in a statement accompanying release of the company’s latest quarterly earnings on 7 Aug.  “Crop sizes are coming down in most of the key sourcing areas for flue-cured and burley tobacco, including Brazil, Tanzania, and Malawi,” he said. Burley crop sales in some regions, Malawi in particular, may not satisfy demand, due to cut backs in reaction to low prices last year and adverse weather, he said.
Operating income from flue-cured and burley tobacco operations in North America and elsewhere rose about 35 per cent to USD 35.8 million (EUR 28.9 million) in the three months ended June 30, Universal said. Sales from those operations dropped about 5 per cent to USD 398 million from the same three months one year prior. (ci)