GEORGIA-FLORIDA WRAPPER TOBACCO 

 ACREAGE fiND PRICE/LABOR RATIO 



HARVESTED 



X X RATIO 



1951 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 



U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NEG.ERS 8978-72(11) ECONOMIC RESEARCH SERVICE 



Figure 10 



enclosed in cloth-covered frameworks. Also, the high 

 quality standards require more labor. 



Total, production costs of cigar wrapper are about 

 $4,500 per acre. With these high production costs, the 

 selling price is eight times or more the price of filler or 

 binder tobacco. 



Virtually all wrapper is grown under sales 

 contracts or on farms owned by cigar manufacturers. 

 Most of the farms grow 60 to 100 acres of wrapper. 

 Connecticut, Massachusetts, Georgia, and Florida 

 are the wrapper-producing States. 



Acreage of cigar wrapper tobacco declined 45 

 percent from 13,000 acres in 1950 to 8,000 acres in 

 1971. Most of the decline occurred from 1968 to 1971. 

 Growers cited declining labor force and rising wage 

 rates for the drop. Also, lower cost reconstituted sheet 

 wrapper has reduced the demand for natural 

 wrapper. 



From 1950 to 1968, harvested acreage ranged 



between 12,300 acres in 1953 and 15,600 in 1965. 

 Yields have changed relatively little since the early 

 1960's because of controlled production practices. 



Several estimating equations for cigar wrapper 

 tobacco acreage during 1957-71 are shown in table 5. 

 Equation 3.1, based on farm price of wrapper tobacco, 

 farm wage rates, and acreage harvested (all lagged 1 

 year), gives a satisfactory fit — that is, coefficient 

 signs are as expected, and all variables are 

 significant at the 1-percent level. This equation 

 explains 91 percent of the year-to-year variations in 

 acreage. 



Equation 3.1 indicates that a 1C increase in farm 

 prices for wrapper tobacco resulted in 40 more acres 

 harvested. Also, when wage rates increased, 

 production decreased sharply. According to the 

 equation, a 10-percent increase in farm wages was 

 associated with a decline in harvested acreage of 

 1,378 acres. 



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