Perique prices skyrocketing

[hfearly]

In a recent interview, Dr Heiko Behrends of Dan Tobacco mentioned that they are having a lot of trouble in the market with perique blends, since Perique has become so expensive. As a reason he states the popularity of the Santa Fe Tobacco company producing the "Natural American Spirit" cigarettes, which contain between 5-10% perique tobacco. He continues to say that Santa Fe claims 1/3rd of the total annual Perique production. A barrel shipment of Perique tobacco (226kg) now costs around 5500$ US.
I wonder how that's going to affect the pipe tobacco industry and some of my favourite blends in the next year. :roll:

 

[hfearly]

Might be true but in the grand scheme of things, NASS reports that in 2011, the national average price for U.S. grown tobacco was $1.87 per pound, up $0.085 from the previous year. So Perique is more than 5 times as pricey (up from 5$ per pound in 2002). I.e., while the overall price of tobacco has gone down (adjusted for inflation), the price for Perique has doubled.

 

[sparroa]

I think that people are willing to bear reasonable price increases on their favourite perique blends so long as the perique content remains uncompromised.
In my opinion, anything that encourages perique production is a good thing. I would not want to see demand drop, because it has been on the verge of extinction before.
As usual, I maintain that the biggest threat to any blend are the inevitable pipe tobacco tax increases. The price of perique is small potatoes compared to that...
On a side note, I am not a fan of coffin nails but I would love to smoke ONE pack of American Spirit perique cigarettes. After that I'd be back on the pipe train...

 

[foggymountain]

It's just a matter of time before there is Chinese grown perique.

 

[hfearly]

Hmm... Pelique? :rofl: Kidding aside, if Chinese tobacco is of the same quality as some of the tea leaves they produce, that would be fantastic.
Btw. interesting study on China's Tobacco Situation:

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/10/25-china-tobacco-li

 

[cigrmaster]

The only perique I want to smoke if from St James Parish. There are so many things on the horizon that are going to make our pipe tobacco double and triple in price which in turn is going to hurt this industry very badly. Imagine when the price of Escudo is 30 dollars a tin instead of 9. What do you think will happen to sales, will the company producing it be able to stay in business? I am not taking any chances, this is not about if it will happen but when.

 

[hfearly]

30$ I wish. It's 35.99$ here in Canada ... Go figure ;-)

 

[admin]

L.A. Poche Perique Tobacco Co. has tripled their production capacity in the last year. They have brought more farmers into the growing of Perique, and have a massive new facility that is over a year old now.
There is definitely an increased demand, but there is also increased production, and no expected shortage of Perique anytime soon.
I was going to publish an article on this a year ago, and hired a local reporter, but it came out below standards and there were several problems. It was a classic example of "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself".

 

[cortezattic]

These worries about the price and availability of Perique remind me of an article I surfed into a couple of years ago.

I think it was either the New York Times or the WSJ. At any rate, the article decried the shortage of Perique and the

difficulties in production, weather and competition from more lucrative crops. The fear was that, in a few years, Perique

might vanish altogether. To me, something didn't ring true, so I checked the date of the article. It was published in

the late 1800's!

 

[admin]

The only current accurate info on Perique is here on PipesMagazine.com.

 

[lestrout]

Kevin - having met Mark and seeing his energy and acumen, I have no doubt his efforts to keep Perique going will be successful, no matter how many cigarettes they make out of it.
hp

les