Virginia growers cultivate top-quality tobacco desired by international buyers

CALLANDS, VA — Demand for Virginia-grown tobacco may have dipped over the decades, but grower efficiencies and commitment to quality keep the state’s surviving operations profitable.

Over 8,400 Virginia farms were producing tobacco in 1992. Today, only 173 farms in Virginia are growing the historically iconic crop, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement and 2004 federal tobacco quota buyout pushed some growers into early retirement, while others transitioned to growing different crops.

In colonial Virginia, tobacco wasn’t just a crop; it was currency. People paid taxes, bought goods, and even settled debts in pounds of leaf. Promissory notes payable in tobacco circulated widely. Image Credit - VA Farm Bureau

Though acreage has dropped by almost half since the 2017 census to 12,634 acres, Virginia still ranks third nationally for tobacco production. The current generation of growers are building on centuries of expertise.

“Quality, quality, quality is how we stay in business,” said Robert Mills, Pittsylvania County tobacco grower and vice president of Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. “Efficiency is number one.”

Virginia tobacco is mostly blended into premium quality cigarettes.

“We don’t sell tobacco,” Mills added. “We show people how to use U.S. leaf in their product. It’ll cost them 50 cents more a pack to put ‘U.S. leaf’ on it, but now they have our premium product and can charge $1.50 a pack more.”

China is the world’s largest tobacco consumer and global importer. U.S. trade with China is in a state of uncertainty due to ongoing trade tensions and escalating tariffs between the two countries.

“Virginia is recognized for growing the best tobacco in the world,” said David Reed, Virginia Cooperative Extension tobacco agronomist in Blackstone. “We’ve got that to fall back on. And there’s always demand for cigarette production. However, it’s much more expensive for us to grow tobacco here than somewhere else. There’s a balancing act between the quality and the price.”

Without tariffs and restrictions on selling tobacco, “we couldn’t grow enough to meet the demand, because that is the quality of U.S. tobacco,” he said.

Fifth-generation grower Adam Gregory in Pittsylvania County is a young farmer who started his own tobacco operation at Gregory Farms years after his dad took the federal buyout option in 2004.

“I grew up around it and love this way of life—watching tobacco grow and working the land,” he said. “It’s just all I ever dreamed of doing.”

Gregory started on 6.5 acres and has expanded to 110, with 22 box barns for conventional flue-cured tobacco.

Diversifying his buyer contracts helps Gregory find markets for his tobacco. Richmond-based Universal Corporation wants his bright, clean, lemon-style tobacco.

“And I’ll have a barn of tobacco that’s more orangey,” Gregory explained. “Philip Morris loves that style of tobacco. So, no matter what, you have a home for it, and you’re going to get top dollar!”