TOBACCO IN ONTARIO, CANADA 
By Albert B. Davis 
Tobacco Division 
Acreage, Cost, and Yield 
The production and marketing of flue-cured tobacco in Ontario is controlled by the Ontario Flue-Cured 
Growers’ Marketing Board under the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Act. Acreages of flue-cured are rigidly 
allotted, and approved varieties must be used. 
The growing of flue-cured tobacco in Ontario is a high-investment enterprise. Cash operating costs are large, and 
weather risks are exceedingly high. Growers particularly fear hail and early frost. The season is so short tobacco 
plants must be grown in greenhouses and transplanted to the field in late May or early June. Growers like to have 
enough extra plants in the greenhouses to reset their entire acreage if a late frost does kill their newly set plants. 
A typical flue-cured farm in Ontario would have a Basic Acreage Allotment of 35 acres of tobacco. It would 
have at least six kilns and all the necessary machinery and equipment needed for growing the allotted tobacco 
acreage. It is not uncommon for such farms, without the machinery and equipment, to sell for $75,000-100,000. 
The financing of such an investment, along with the high cash operating costs, puts many growers under 
considerable financial strain when hail, frost, or other elements seriously damages the crop. Because of their 
extremely high labor costs and large tobacco acreages, Ontario growers in recent years have made fast progress in the 
use of labor-saving machinery for the production and handling of tobacco. 
CANADA: Acreage of Tobacco by Type, 1956-1968 
2 3 
Type Average! Average 1965 1966 1967 1968 
1957-59 1960-64 
Flue-Cured: Acres Acres Acres Acres Acres Acres 
Ontarionesesee Sis 8 als 116,383 107,141 86,870 117,471 128,117 122,086 
OuebeCeye Aes he os. 5,580 5,383 5,877 5,742 6,215 6,200 
Otheriareas:-2) 05°... se 50 435 7176 923 1,031 1,500 
Burley, 
OntariOb ss oc. sa 6,399 4 2,946 1,939 2,796 2,422 1,579 
Dark tobacco, 
On FanlO Pens he 5 eee bsietd) s 324 $42 411 300 332 350 
Cigar @uebec "=... 2... 3s 2,263 3,492 3,108 2,519 2,141 2,140 
PIPEMOUEDEG: sors susie eo 719 853 363 447 S15 S'S 
Ota ree rct st ciewsess oe 133,015 120,787 99,344 130,198 140,773 134,370 
1 Three-year average. 2 Revised. > Preliminary. oy Four-year average; no commercial acreage allotted in 1960. 
