Canada: Tobacco Crop Falls Short of Target

Source from:  Brantford Expositor 12/10/2013

It's official, Ontario tobacco growers have finished the 2013 crop year nearly 10% short of target, due to adverse growing conditions during the spring and summer.

With the last of the loads transported to the buyers, the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers Marketing Board reports that 243 licensed growers in Norfolk, Brant, Oxford, Elgin and Middlesex counties brought in a contracted harvest of 56.2 million pounds.

That's 5.8 million pounds less than the contracted volume of 62 million pounds set for this year.

"For the most part, the shortage is weather related," tobacco board chairman Fred Neukamm said in an interview.

He attributed the shortfall to a cold spring and September, rains that delayed planting and frost in some areas. They all contributed to a shorter growing season, Neukamm said.

Despite those perils, he said, "we've received several comments from the buyers that the quality of the crop was good, with cleaner grades than average and many grades were slightly above average."

Growers and the board are now looking to 2014.

"As we look at the U.S. it appears that demand is strong and could be even higher there, and what happens there often happens here."

It's difficult to expand operations very much, he said, because there is a shortage of infrastructure for tobacco production in the U.S. and Canada.

"We are at our limits right now, so any major expansion in crop size will require investment in more infrastructure."

Growers will learn the wishes of the buyers by early January, and then will have to make decisions. The two-month licensing period starts at the beginning of January.

Neukamm said that over the past three years in the licensing system that replaced the silent auction growers have become accustomed to the short window for to negotiate contracts with the buyers and apply to the board under licence. Enditem