Buying Canadian may become harder for Manitoba shoppers as locally grown produce runs out
Shoppers boycotting U.S. may rethink habits as out-of-season Canadian produce disappears from shelves
Manitobans who've changed their buying habits to support Canadian businesses and farmers will have to decide whether they will purchase vegetables from the U.S. or Mexico as locally grown produce runs out ahead of the spring growing season.
Canadian-grown turnips, cabbage, beets and carrots cannot be produced and stored year-round across Canada and typically aren't available on grocery store shelves in spring, which will impact people boycotting U.S. goods because of the Canada-U.S. trade war.
U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed and dialled back high tariffs on Canadian goods in his first months in power.
Peak of the Market, a grower-owned business based in Winnipeg, partners with 12 growers in Manitoba and more across Canada to ensure locally grown produce is well-stocked in grocery stores, but at this time of year, the business transitions to produce from other countries.
While Peak of the Market has been expanding its partnerships with growers in Mexico for years, CEO Pamela Kolochuk said heightened tensions south of the Canadian border have led the company to source more vegetables, like carrots, from Mexico as consumers continue to boycott the U.S.
WATCH| Manitoba shoppers buying Canadian-grown produce say it's harder to find:
Consumers may want to buy non-U.S. products, but produce like cauliflower and broccoli are mainly sourced from the U.S. and aren't as prevalent in Mexico in the qualities that Canadians may eat.
"So it's going to be deciding what's more important to you," Kolochuk said.
There is only one carrot grower in Manitoba, she said.
Potatoes are the only fresh Canadian produce that can be available year-round Canada-wide, because they can be stored long enough to go from harvest to harvest.
"Everything else needs to be sourced at some point in time during the year from another part of the world," Kolochuk said.
Paolo De Luca, a co-owner of De Luca's in Winnipeg, said 90 per cent of the grocery store's products are from Manitoba, B.C., Quebec and countries in Europe.
"The only time you'll ever find products outside of Canada and Europe in our store is just when it's readily unavailable completely in Canada," he said.
De Luca's sold local products long before the U.S. tariff and sovereignty threats started, but the co-owners have been paying more attention to where they get their goods based on requests from consumers.
"Everyone is looking for Canadian products. We're fortunate because we do have a wholesale division, but we've done a lot with local manufacturers [to] bring their products to the forefront," De Luca said.
Kolochuk said Peak of the Market's U.S. partners are "feeling the pain" just as much as they are.
"We're trying to empathize with them as much as they're doing the same for us, because we're both going through similar things here as we try to move products south and as they're trying to move product into Canada," she said.
Some shoppers may not pay attention to where their groceries come from, but the national movement to buy Canadian has encouraged people to take a closer look at labels and support farmers, she said.
"Whatever country you're supporting, at the end of the day, you're supporting a farmer, and I think that's what needs to be first and foremost," Kolochuk said.
She hopes people who like to eat vegetables like carrots won't stop because a Canadian-grown option is no longer available.
"I would hope that they focus on buying vegetables … and not narrowing their view on what they should buy, because eating healthy is most important right now, regardless of what's happening in this world," Kolochuk said.
But one Winnipeg shopper left a Walmart location on Tuesday after she couldn't find Old Dutch chips and has previously left other stores when she couldn't find a local product.
"I am leaving with an empty cart," Brenda Brown-Neziol said. "The shelf was empty for the Canadian product I needed."
Brown-Neziol, who feeds a family of five and runs a home daycare, also said she will not buy carrots from the U.S. or Mexico when Canadian-grown carrots run out.
Another shopper at Superstore, Joe Masi, said he feels strongly about the buy Canadian movement and would rather spend his money on Canadian goods than those from the U.S., but sometimes he can't.
"Certain things are needed that just aren't produced in Canada, so we have to buy them," he said.
Masi wonders if the province will find a way to grow some foods, like carrots, year-round.
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With files from Felisha Adam