TABLE 3.— UNITED STATES: AVERAGE PRICESi FOR IMPORTED ORIENTAL-TYPE TOBACCO, 1955-1964 



Year 



Turkey 



Greece 



Syria 



Italy 



Cyprus Yugoslavia Lebanon 



Overall 

 avg. price 



U.S. 4 U.S. 4 U.S. 4 U.S. 4 U.S. 4 U.S. 4 U.S. 4 U.S. 4 



per lb. per lb. per lb. per lb. per lb. per lb. per lb. per lb. 



1955 64 83 37 80 44 87 66 69 



1956 67 82 31 82 38 77 78 70 



1957 70 87 44 87 44 75 79 74 



1958 71 82 28 70 43 72 71 73 



1959 70 81 27 68 45 74 95 72 



1960 63 81 30 70 45 69 70 71 



1961 63 80 27 70 51 64 63 67 



1962 55 75 29 71 49 59 61 60 • 



1963 54 78 34 67 47 '58 64 60 



1964 61 92 32 71 48 68 60 70 



1 In supplying country. Declared import values comparable to the value per pound at ports of loading, exporting countries. 



In countries like Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Syria, 

 and some others, in areas where oriental tobaccos are 

 grown (dry and mostly hilly) there are few competing 

 crops, no industry, and a surplus of labor. 



In such dry, hilly areas, there is only limited com- 

 petition for land between tobacco and other crops. 

 Some of the crops which might compete with tobacco 

 are wheat, other grains, tree fruits including olives, 

 and also — in a few areas — grapes and vegetables. In 

 the more remote areas, where much of the land is 

 marginal or submarginal, there is a dearth of cash 

 crops, a lack of employment opportunities, and thus, 

 hand labor available for tobacco growing. 



Production methods 



In these countries, women and children provide a 

 large part of the hand labor, much of it actually 

 required in the seedbed stage, in transplanting, and 

 during the growing period. To an American tobacco 

 grower, on the other hand, it would seem that farmers 

 in the Middle East use excessive amounts of hand 

 labor in the later stages, in harvesting and curing. 

 Each small leaf — about half the size of a man's hand 

 — is handpicked, usually in the early morning, put in 

 baskets and transported to villages or to the place 

 where curing takes place. 



In the Izmir region of Turkey, some growers who 



live in villages and grow tobacco some distance from 

 town (which makes frequent trips to their tobacco 

 fields difficult) build shelters in their tobacco fields and 

 live there during the cultivation and harvesting period. 

 The shelters are often made with tree limbs and 

 branches and are meager and inexpensive, as they are 

 used only for a short time. 



Curing 



Oriental tobaccos in Eastern Europe and the Middle 

 East are harvested mainly during July, August, and 

 September. Treatment is a combination of sun-curing 

 and air-curing. Following this, the strings of tobacco 

 (sometimes left tied to drying sticks) are placed in 

 piles or bulks. 



In the curing process, the tiny tobacco leaves are first 

 strung (one leaf at a time) on white string. It appears 

 that women and children do this, usually during the 

 afternoon in the shade of a building or a tree. 



The growers check the condition of the piles or 

 bulks periodically during the curing process. When 

 cooler weather, perhaps a little more humid, arrives, 

 the grower and his family remove the tobacco from 

 the bulks and pack it carefully into what is called 

 growers' bales. 



From area to area, growers' bales vary in weight a 

 great deal, mostly between 22 and 50 pounds. 



Changes in Production 



Labor 



There has been some movement of labor from rural 

 areas to cities within producing countries and also some 



movement of labor away from the oriental-tobacco- 

 producing countries to Western Europe. 



Workers from Turkey and Greece have gone to 

 European Economic Community (EEC) countries in 



— 3 



