UPDATE: South Carolina tobacco markets are prepared to open on July 23rd. This crop is generally of high quality and may be the best overall in the entire flue-cured belt; it may be too early to tell if it is of higher quality than last year. This crop should offer a high proportion of quality leaf.

Loan receipts are currently unknown but expected to range from low to ample for this season. Much (or possibly all) of this is dependent upon expectations of the Tobacco Agreement and the assessment of impact of this on future domestic usage and U.S. manufactured cigarettes for export.

Although legislative action was not very active this past year, other national and legal issues were mammoth. The just announced "Tobacco Agreement" and actions as a result of this agreement between the tobacco companies and Attorneys General will likely be a major driving force in this industry for years to come. Much still depends on the possible action by Congress in the form of ratification and/or changes to this agreement. Pro and con groups have already started lobbying action concerning this issue. Tobacco farm leaders are currently studying and discussing many alternatives such as: including affected producers in the settlement, maintaining the tobacco program/quotas, and impacts on rural areas.

There are so many different projections and discussions at the present time, it is difficult to estimate the impact a settlement will have on the industry. As example, the press has been reporting possibilities of cigarette price increases in the range of $.50 to $1.00 per pack. One can easily run different scenarios and get low or high farm-level production decreases. Probably, the most definitive thing that can be predicted is that this will be negative on U.S. tobacco production.

Given the current situation, producers need to give even more priority to harvesting and marketing the highest possible quality production. Quality issues include: harvesting ripe/mature tobacco, harvesting in three or four stalk positions, eliminating foreign matter such as weeds, grass, stalks, suckers, and nonorganic material (sand, trash, and barn insulation.) In a nutshell, quality has not paid much during the past two years, but what does the future hold? Also, growers are strongly encouraged to use only labeled rates of approved pesticides.

MARKETING SCHEDULE: The South Carolina marketing schedule for 1997 follows. This schedule is based on the X Schedule by Tom Price, USDA Tobacco Division in Raleigh, NC. The approximate thousand pounds per sale (reported under the market title) are estimated for each set of buyers and may vary slightly during the season. This schedule is based on 11 sets of buyers in Area B. The first 10 sales are accelerated with 126 percent of the regular sale rate. This should greatly help move the old crop and initial 1997 offerings out of the way before area D opens.

The sale rotation is changed to accommodate market shifts, etc. Tabor City and Whiteville combined this year as there are now 10 markets in Area B. Table 1 shows the balance of the schedule by the number of sales by day of week for each market. Although there are several other important factors such as accelerated or early vs. late part of the season, the sale season by day-of- week is fairly uniform. For a three-day week, Tuesday becomes the 1st day and Thursday is the 3rd day; the first Wednesday is counted as a "1^st."

Table 1.  South Carolina 1997 Tobacco Markets by Day of Week Number of 
Sales

                              ----  Week Sale Day ----
         
                  Market           1st    2nd    3rd     4th    Total
                  ----------------------------------------------------
                  Conway           6       4       5      6        21
                  Darl/Timm        9       8       8      9        34
                  King-Hemi       17      12      14     14        57
                  Lake City       28      31      25     20       104
                  Loris            3       5       4      2        14
                  Mullins         32      30      30     28       120   
                  -----------------------------------------------------

1997 SOUTH CAROLINA TYPE 13 TOBACCO MARKET SCHEDULE
Month	Day	Sale No.	Week Day	Conway 315	Darl-Timm 340	King-Hemi 318	Lake City 322	Loris 332	Mullins 298
JULY	23 24	1a 2a	We Th	X	X	X X	# X		# #
	28 29 30 31	3a 4a 5a 6a	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X X	# X # X	X	# # # #
AUG.	4 5 6 7	7a 8a 9a 10a	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	# X X #	X	# # # #
	11 12 13 14	11 12 13 14	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	# X # #	X	# # # #
	18 19 20 21	15 16 17 18	Mo Tu We Th	X X	X X	X X X X	x # x #	X	# # # #
	25 26 27 28	19 20 21 22	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	# # # x	X	# # # #
SEPT.	2 3 4	23 24 25	Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	X # X	X	# # #
	8 9 10 11	26 27 28 29	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	# # # x	X	# # # #
	15 16 17 18	30 31 32 33	Mo Tu We Th	X X	X X	X X X X	x # x #	X	# # # #
	22 23 24 25	34 35 36 37	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	# # # x	X	# # # #
___________ OCT.	29 30 1 2	38 39 40 41	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X X	X # X #	X	# # # #
	6 7 8 9	42 43 44 45	Mo Tu We Th	X X	X X	X X X	# X & X	X	# # # #
	14 15 16	46 47 48	Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	X # X		# # #
	20 21 22 23	49 50 51 52	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	# # # X	X	# # # #
	27 28 29 30	53 54 55 56	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	X # # #	X	# # # #
NOV.	3 4 5 6	57 58 59 60	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X X	# X # #	X	# # # #
	10 11 12 13	61 62 63 64	Mo Tu We Th	X	X X	X X X	X & X #	X	# # # #
	17 18	65 66	Mo Tu	X	X	X X	X #	X	# #
NOTES:"X" = 1 SALE/DAY; "#" = 2 SALES/DAY; "&" = 3 SALES/DAY; "a" SALES ACCELERATED WITH 1.26 OF REGULAR SALE RATE

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updated 7/29/97