Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Fred Neukamm. I'm the vice-chair of the board. Both Linda, our chair, and I are tobacco producers. We are both farmers. We are an elected board. The quota holders, our membership, elects us. I've been the past chair of the board for a number of years, and I am currently the vice-chair.
Certainly we are very interested not only in the contraband issue from a broader sense, but certainly we believe the contraband is a major contributor to our economic demise. There's a complex relationship involving government policy, the legal manufacturer's response to that policy, and of course the contraband issue. As our chair outlined in her presentation, our crop volumes have dropped dramatically as a result of these complex relationships.