PROCESSING, STORAGE, AND SELECTED STORAGE SERVICE COSTS FOR FIRE-CURED, 

 TYPES 22 AND 23, AND DARK AIR- CURED, TYPES 35 AND 36, TOBACCOS 

 IN COMMERCIAL FACILITIES, 1966/67 AND ESTIMATED 1968 



by 



N. A. Wyrm, Agricultural Economist 

 Marketing Economics Division 

 Economic Research Service 



FINDINGS 



This report analyzes the costs of handling, processing, storage, and 

 related services in commercial facilities handling fire-cured, types 22 and 

 23, and dark air-cured, types 35 and 36, tobaccos during 1966/67 and presents 

 estimates for 1968. 



The results are based on accounting records of five firms processing 

 fire-cured and dark air-cured, five firms storing fire-cured, and four firms 

 storing dark air-cured tobaccos. These processing firms machine redried about 

 17.7 million pounds of green-weight tobacco with a redried weight yield of 

 better than 88 percent. 



Redrying costs include costs for receiving tobacco into the plant, redrying 

 it, packing it into hogsheads, and shipping it out. 



Costs were also developed for tobacco storage and storage services. 

 Services included in this report are innage, outage, sampling, reweighing and 

 restoring, and reweighing while performing other services. 



The 1966/67 labor costs were updated to reflect minimum wage changes 

 effective February 1, 1968, and changes in other variable costs as of January 

 1968. (See Methodology.) 



Average survey period cost for machine redrying dark air-cured and fire- 

 cured tobaccos was $5.77. When updated to 1968, this cost increased to $6.43. 



Storage costs were computed on the volume stored during the survey period. 

 Warehouses storing fire-cured tobacco used an average of 82 percent of storage 

 capacity during the survey period. At this rate of utilization, the average 

 survey period cost was 40.50 cents per hogshead per month, while the 1968 

 estimate was 41.87 cents. Fire-cured tobacco hogsheads weigh an average of 

 1,605 pounds, gross, with 1,425 pounds of tobacco. Warehouses storing dark 

 air-cured tobacco averaged using 87 percent of storage capacity during the 

 survey period. At this rate of utilization, the 1966/67 cost averaged 34.15 

 cents per hogshead per month and the 1968 cost was 35.59 cents. Estimated 



