Segment Reporting

3 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Segment Reporting

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

7.  SEGMENT INFORMATION

The Company purchases, processes, sells and stores leaf tobacco.  Tobacco is purchased in more than 45 countries and shipped to more than 90 countries.  The sales, logistics and billing functions of the Company are primarily concentrated in service centers outside of the producing areas to facilitate access to its major customers.  Within certain quality and grade constraints, tobacco is fungible and, subject to these constraints, customers may choose to fulfill their needs from any of the areas where the Company purchases tobacco.

          Selling, logistics, billing, and administrative overhead, including depreciation, which originates primarily from the Company’s corporate and sales offices are allocated to the segments based upon segment operating income.  The Company reviews performance data from purchase through sale based on the source of the product and all intercompany transactions are allocated to the region that either purchases or processes the tobacco.

          The following table presents the summary segment information for the three months ended June 30, 2011 and 2010:

	Three Months Ended
	June 30 ,
	2011	2010
Sales and other operating revenues:
South America	$  155,845	$   263,878
Other regions	205,719	227,078
Total revenue	$  361,564	$   490,956
Operating income:
South America	$    14,322	$     19,149
Other regions	9,432	25,197
Total operating income	23,754	44,346
Debt retirement expense	-	932
Interest expense	25,776	26,736
Interest income	1,491	1,983
Income (loss) before income taxes and other items	$       (531)	$     18,661

Analysis of Segment Assets		June 30, 2011	June 30, 2010	March 31, 2011
Segment assets:
	South America	$     740,715	$     941,448	$     690,428
	Other regions	1,215,989	1,251,638	1,117,902
	Total assets	$  1,956,704	$  2,193,086	$  1,808,330