Some tobacco farmers who collect money from the $300-million exit program announced last year plan to continue growing the golden leaf.

Officials have confirmed that families and friends in some instances are pooling quota under one name before offering it to the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board for a buyout.

Growers retiring their quota in this fashion leave the door open to collect a licence to continue producing tobacco. Growers who retire quota under their own name will be ineligible. Tobacco board chair Linda Vandendriessche, of Langton, says there is nothing wrong with this.

"If someone wants to divest their quota, they are allowed to divest -- just so long as they follow the spirit of the program," she said. "Producers are just following what is allowed by the program."

Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced last August that Ottawa was willing to retire 271-million pounds of tobacco quota at a rate of $1.05 per pound. The initiative was touted as the ultimate exit program.

However, many growers believe they can compete under an open market system based on licences and contract sales to manufacturers. Now that farmers are pooling their quota before divestment, more growers stand to vie for this market than originally assumed.

In an e-mail statement, Haldimand-Norfolk MP Diane Finley, minister of human resources and skills development in the Harper cabinet, says this was not the intent of the buyout.

"The federal government has been clear from the beginning: People who receive money from the Tobacco Transition Program must exit the industry," she said. "There will be no future exit programs for those who continue to grow. The Province of Ontario is responsible for the new licensing system and -- with the tobacco board -- they are responsible for making sure that people who have exited the industry are no longer eligible for a licence."

Vandendriessche said there are legitimate reasons for shuffling quota within families and corporations. As an example, she cited two growers in a business partnership. One wants to exit the industry while the other wants to keep growing. In this situation, Vandendriessche says it makes sense to pool quota under one name and split the proceeds.

Tobacco grower Chris Van Paassen of Port Dover, a director of the marketing board, said the shuffling of quota within families is often related to estate and succession planning. Families, he said, are entitled to alter their arrangements as their circumstances change.

Van Paassen added that many growers will be left with large debts after the buyout. They will also have no money to transition to other crops.