Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Company, a subsidiary of Universal Corporation and a CAA member, operates a significant facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, encompassing a processing plant, storage facility, and main office overseeing Universal’s dark air-cured tobacco operations. Lancaster Leaf directly contracts with farmers across all dark air-cured growing regions in the U.S., including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Many of these farmers belong to Amish communities and manage small, single-family tobacco farms, representing over 1,500 small businesses.

In Pennsylvania, most of these farms are not exclusively tobacco farms; they also cultivate various crops and manage activities such as dairy, poultry, swine, wheat, corn, and vegetables. The tobacco component of their farming is crucial for sustaining their overall operations, providing stable income in the face of price volatility in dairy and other crops.

As demand for chewing tobacco in the U.S. has declined, Lancaster Leaf recognized the potential for wrapper production in Pennsylvania’s tobacco crop. Through years of development and farmer education, the PA-41 crop was successfully transitioned into a wrapper/binder crop. Under favorable weather conditions, this crop produces a significant percentage of wrapper styles, consistently contributing to the income of family farms.

The positive ripples created in these farming communities across the five states sustain small family businesses, some of which have been operating for over 150 years. These small businesses, in turn, are vital to the local economies where tobacco farming is a key activity.

This is just one example of the positive impact stories that CAA strives to share with the public, showcasing the meaningful contributions our industry makes to local communities and economies.