Canadian Growers Fear Extinction

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com 11/01/2005

The future looks bleak for Canada's tobacco growers unless they can stop the country's biggest cigarette company from switching to imports within the next few weeks, reports Daniel Pearce in the Simcoe Reformer, quoting a growers' lobby group. Imperial Tobacco, which in the past has bought up to three-quarters of Ontario's crop, announced recently that it will close its processing and manufacturing plants in Aylmer and Guelph and move its Canadian production to Mexico. Mark Bannister, vice-chair of Tobacco Farmers in Crisis, fears that Imperial might, as a consequence of its move, change over to cheaper sources of tobacco. Enditem