DOVER, Tenn. – Tobacco is still grown in the United States, but the industry has been shrinking for years. For example, in 2017 there were 2,618 tobacco farms in Kentucky. In 2022, there were just 984 farms producing tobacco.

In 2020, there were just 6,150 tobacco farmers in the country. The industry has been facing declining demand due to a downward trend in smokers and the rise of substitute products like electronic nicotine delivery systems.

The top producing tobacco states are North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. In the Volunteer State there are just 200 tobacco farms remaining. Robertson County is known as the “Home of the World’s Finest Dark-Fired Tobacco.” Macon County produces the largest amount of burley tobacco in the country, which is a key ingredient in popular cigarettes like Marlboro and Camel. Greene County is the state’s largest tobacco producing county, and home to the Northeast Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, which grows tobacco seedlings in greenhouses. Tobacco farmer Bobby Darnell, of Stewart County, Tenn., is among the last farmers standing growing this labor-intensive crop.

“Tobacco is almost done in Tennessee,” said Darnell, whose family has been raising tobacco since the 1800s. “None of my kids want to do tobacco. They hate it. Tobacco is about over in America.

“I will tell you this. I am living. I’m not making money. I am paying bills, but we are selling things. I don’t know what we’re going to do. We are doing everything we can to keep the farm, to keep the house.”

Darnell is now only growing 40 acres of crop, which he blames tobacco companies for giving such a low allotment or amount of acres.

“We were growing 125 acres of tobacco,” Darnell said. “And now the tobacco companies have cut and cut and cut. They cut some people 58 percent and cut some people totally out.”

The tobacco dilemma is just as bad in the Bluegrass State.

“The magnitude of loss in tobacco farms is pretty alarming,” said Will Snell, who studies tobacco production at the University of Kentucky. “I think we’re down to a critical mass of growers.”

Only 241 Tennessee farms grew tobacco in 2022 compared to 8,206 farms in 2002.

Some, but not all, small and unprofitable farmers have since switched crops or left the industry entirely. Some farmers in Kentucky and Tennessee have transitioned to growing cigar wrapper tobacco.

Brad Stephen, of Daviess County, Ky., is one of those tobacco farmers who watched their burley tobacco crop diminish over the years but have given cigar wrapper tobacco a chance. The tobacco used for cigar wrapping is a type of “dark tobacco” that’s specialized just for cigars. It still has some similarities to burley tobacco.

“There appears to be a huge market for cigar wrapper tobacco,” Stephen said. “Unlike burley, which is shredded and used for cigarette filler, wrapper tobacco leaves must be free of blemishes, holes and discoloration.”

Cigar wrapper tobacco is a specialty crop of tobacco leaves that are wrapped around the outside of a cigar. The leaves are usually oily and aromatic, and come from the midsection or bottom of the tobacco plant. They are the largest and highest quality of the three types of tobacco leaves used to make a cigar. The leaves are chosen for their structural integrity and lack of imperfections. Cigar wrapper leaves are treated with care to avoid blemishes and tears, and can be very expensive.

“The tobacco is cut early and picked up quickly in the field. The leaves are hung on scaffold wagons for transport to the barn, where they are stored for six weeks to dry. Once at market, the tobacco is graded based on quality. We spray this tobacco weekly for insects and diseases so there are no holes.”

While burley varieties of tobacco fetch $2 per pound, cigar wrapper tobacco can fetch $6 per pound.

Tobacco farmers in North Carolina are also taking a close look at cigar wrapper tobacco. North Carolina produced over 249 million pounds of tobacco and it was valued at $524 million.

Dr. Matthew Vann, a North Carolina State University professor and tobacco extension specialist, is leading a research project that explores the possibility of growing expensive cigar wrapper tobacco in his state.

“We know there’s an increased demand in this type of tobacco. We’re thinking that people who used to grow burley could maybe grow this as an alternative.” Vann said.

According to Vann, cigar wrapper tobacco can be harvested, hung, cured and graded a lot like burley, but the cigar wrapper tobacco is less forgiving. Burley growers usually work to make leaves thick, heavy and leathery. The tobacco leaves used for cigar wrappers need to be thin without any imperfections.

“With burley we can go in and ‘grip and rip it’ and get it in the barn, but with this cigar tobacco you have to be more gentle because the quality is so important,” Vann said. “We feel pretty good that we can deliver the quality needed to make the product that’s desired, but it’ll come down to educating growers about how to do it. Our goal is to grow a perfect leaf, and you have to handle them with a velvet glove to make that happen.”

Vann said he knows cigar makers are looking for more growers and that some farmers in his state have signed small contracts.