"The flavor of the tobacco grown here in the Connecticut River Valley is much better than in Honduras, Venezuela or the Dominican Republic."

After a bumper summer tobacco harvest - the first in two years - local broadleaf tobacco, used as cigar wrappers, is cured and ready for sale. All that's missing are the buyers.

Alan Sanderson Jr. of Fairview Farm in Whately said that buyers from the three or four cigar companies that purchase tobacco from Massachusetts and Connecticut growers have not arrived at their usual time this year.

Sanderson said that most of the crop sales are completed by the end of November.


Sanderson said he's not sure why there seems to be a delay this year, although experts cite a number of factors, including substandard crops, high taxation, increased prices and lower demand.

There's no problem with this year's crop, Sanderson said, which avoided the disease and hail of past years and which enjoyed a hot summer. "It's a very nice crop."

Bernie Smiarowski of Teddy Smiarowski Farm in Hatfield said that he and his brothers did sell their tobacco crop a few weeks ago, but felt fortunate to do so.

"They're not buying as much" this year as in past years, he said. Smiarowski and his brothers grew 35 acres of tobacco, down from 60 acres in better times. The family is discussing how much to plant next year, or whether they'll plant at all, he said.

"The flavor of the tobacco grown here in the Connecticut River Valley is much better than in Honduras, Venezuela or the Dominican Republic," he said, "because of the growing conditions, the soil and humidity. But the cost is high. It costs more to grow it here than in countries where labor is cheap."

Because local tobacco has been scarce over the past two years, "You'd think demand would be high this year," Smiarowski said. "I don't know if the tax on tobacco products has something to do with it."

Jon Foster, an independent tobacco leaf buyer for Richmond-based General Cigar Co. and other cigar makers, said that the buying season is a little late this year because of buyer pickiness, increased tariffs and a decrease in demand.