Segment Reporting

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 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 and nine months ended December 31, 2011 and 2010:

	Three Months Ended		Nine Months Ended
	December 31,		December 31,
	2011	2010	2011	2010
Sales and other operating revenues:
South America	$ 107,648	$  140,491	$    486,373	$    634,645
Other regions	386,240	381,653	883,610	937,704
Total revenue	$ 493,888	$  522,144	$ 1,369,983	$ 1,572,349
Operating income:
South America	$   14,512	$    21,640	$      41,086	$      71,557
Other regions	29,392	8,515	63,564	48,933
Total operating income	43,904	30,155	104,650	120,490
Debt retirement expense	-	1,141	-	4,584
Interest expense	27,408	25,277	80,211	79,102
Interest income	1,999	1,660	4,776	5,579
Income before income taxes and other items	$   18,495	$      5,397	$      29,215	$      42,383

Analysis of Segment Assets		December 31, 2011	December 31, 2010	March 31, 2011
Segment assets:
	South America	$    543,604	$    639,111	$     690,428
	Other regions	1,509,302	1,217,239	1,117,902
	Total assets	$ 2,052,906	$ 1,856,350	$  1,808,330