And for at least one industry observer and critic, the rebound doesn't pass the smell test and is being done on the backs of taxpayers.
The number of people licensed to grow tobacco this year has more than doubled, to 264 under a new licence system from 118 under the old quota system. After years of dwindling tobacco production, the federal government scrapped the quota system two years ago. Tobacco growers, mostly centred in the Elgin-Oxford-Norfolk area, were paid a total of $286 million for their quota in return for a vow to get out of the industry permanently.
Fred Neukamm, chairpman of the Ontario Flue-Cure Tobacco Growers Marketing Board, estimates this year's tobacco crop should jump to 22.5 million kilograms, up from 10 million kilograms last year.
That's far below the peak production of 108 milloin kilograms in 1974, but it's roughly equal to Canada's annual consumption of cigarette tobacco, said Neil Collishaw of Ottawa-based Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada.
Collishaw said that because of loopholes in the exit program, many of the same tobacco growers that took the buyout are back in business by striking a deal with a licence holder who could be a friend or relative who did not take the buyout.
With the rebound of tobacco production, he said, the federal tobacco buyout program appears to have done little but enrich tobacco quota holders, while tobacco production has rebounded enough to meet domestic demand.
"Tobacco growers can thank the taxpayers," Collishaw said.
But Neukamm said the number of producers and the crop size has increased because manufacturers are putting more Ontario tobacco back in their cigarettes.
Under the new system, farmers sell their tobacco on contract directly to manufacturers. Under the old marketing board system, manufacturers paid a premium price for Ontario tobacco and gradually substituted it for cheaper imported tobacco.
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