Canada: Higher than Expected Ontario tobacco Harvest in 2014

Source from:  Ottawasun.com 03/04/2015

Ontario tobacco growers defied the odds to deliver a higher-than-expected harvest of the 2014 crop.

With the last deliveries in February posted by contracting buyers, the Ontario Flue-cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board reports that 241 licensed growers in Norfolk, Brant, Oxford, Elgin and Middlesex counties delivered slightly more than 61 million pounds of leaf grown last summer on 21,670 approved acres.

That's an increase of about 4.3 million pounds from 56.3 million pounds in 2013, and it came from fewer farmers growing on a smaller acreage.

The 2013 crop was grown by 243 growers on 23,269 acres.

It means that despite those constraints and adverse weather conditions, growers managed to reap about 4.7 million pounds of extra volume.

"This is good news for the growers," said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett, who is also the Progressive Conservative critic for agriculture, food and rural affairs, and has watched over the tobacco industry for decades. "We know there is a continued future for tobacco in Norfolk, Brant, Oxford and Elgin counties."

The 2014 season was supposed to be a year of entrenchment. In 2013, 241 growers delivered a harvest nearly 10% short of that year's projected volume of 62 million pounds.

The shortfall was blamed mostly on the weather. Growers suffered a combination of a cold spring and rains that delayed planting, more rains at inopportune times in the summer, a cold September and frost in some areas.

Faced with that, growers delivered a lower crop, albeit of good quality. So a lower crop target was set in 2014 to give the growers an opportunity to recover. Licences were granted in the spring.

A major player was Grand River Enterprises, a Six Nations-based company that is the second buyer of Ontario tobacco, and the only processor in the province.

The 2014 growing season presented challenges. From seeding their greenhouses to transplanting to the fields, growers were delayed at the onset by unseasonably cool temperatures, board chairman Fred Neukamm said at the time. The cool temperatures continued through July into August, slowing growth.

But growers got a break in September, with warmer, drier weather that topped off plant growth well.

Growers will enter the 2015 season with a different regime, after the Ontario government moved to take over the board's licensing duties.

As of Jan. 1, the Ministry of Finance has the authority to hand out grower and buyer licences directly rather than use the board as an agent, and to carry out surprise inspections of farms.

The ministry has said it wants to crack down on the contraband trade, keep cheap cigarettes from getting into the hands of youth, improve community health and collect full taxes on tobacco.

"If it helps bring stability in the market, that could be a good thing," Barrett said. "If that can be done without unnecessary red tape and other barriers, that's even better."

However, Barrett is concerned about the prospect of heavy-handed handling of tobacco growers by enforcement agents.

"All it takes is a few bad apples to screw things up for all tobacco farmers," he said. Enditem