A growing number of Canadians are rethinking their purchasing habits and deliberately choosing to support Canadian products over American imports.
Driven by rising political tensions and a desire to boost the Canadian economy, new doors are being opened for Canadian businesses, especially those in the vegan food industry.
For Francis Lo, the owner of Yoso, a plant-based yogurt company based in Cambridge, Ont., the renewed focus on Canadian-made goods presents a rare opportunity.
He founded Yoso more than 20 years ago with his brother when vegan products were not as accessible as they are now.
Immigrating from Hong Kong as teenagers, the brothers inherited their grandfather's entrepreneurial spirit and found a way to revolutionize soy products in a new way for Canadian consumers.
“Our thought process was because my grandfather, my dad's father, had started a soy beverage manufacturing business in Hong Kong in 1940, so he was known to be a bit of a pioneer by accident, and so in the spirit of his we tried to follow his footpath and that's where we came ... with the education to potentially bring value to the family business,” Lo said.
Yoso sells many different dairy alternatives, but they focus on the soy-based yogurt they first launched in 2005.
The demand for dairy alternatives grew over the years, and they re-imagined their existing products, looking at market trends they could utilize, like coconut, almonds and cashews.
But it was always hard for Yoso to compete with the big American dairy-alternative brands.
“I would say (it’s been) six to seven years that major U.S. brands have dominated the shop space in major Canadian retailers just because they have more," Lo said. "They have more resources and more money to leverage upon a huge selection of products. Like for example, Silk, which is an American brand, is owned by a dairy company.”
But now, more than ever, consumers prioritize supporting local businesses, and that opens new possibilities for them, he said.
Many grocery stores don’t like to highlight smaller Canadian businesses, because that’s not where the money is for them, Lo said.
“For us, it is really David versus Goliath, and unfortunately, we're not as fearless as Goliath. So, for us, it is being very mindful of which and what retailers to support," Lo said. "So we’ve been focusing a lot on the independent ones and, you know, retailers that support a local program, like Sobeys, Ontario. It's been great because they have a local support program.”
Sobeys Ontario highlights local food brands, usually featuring them on end caps to have more eyes on them.
“Supporting Canadian products is a key priority for us, and we have a comprehensive strategy in place to highlight and promote local options in our stores across the country," Laetitia Tchatat, Sobeys' public affairs specialist, said in an email.
"We’re continuously working to source more Canadian-made products (as defined by the CFIA), including plant-based options, and to clearly identify them on our store shelves to help customers make informed choices. We remain committed to providing transparency and empowering our customers to support Canadian products in a way that aligns with their values,” she said.
Jill Hobbs, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and an expert in food policy, said this shift is also driven by a desire to strengthen the Canadian economy, but people do not always understand how much of their food is Canadian.
One challenge for consumers is navigating the sometimes-confusing labels that distinguish Canadian products, she said.
“If it's a product of Canada, it basically means if you have that label, all major ingredients have to be grown or raised in Canada, and that the product has to be processed in a Canadian facility. So, that means it's Canadian,” Hobbs said. “A made in Canada label just means that final stage of processing occurred in Canada.
"So, it can say made in Canada, but the ingredients may have come from somewhere else. And I think what we find is consumers don't necessarily understand the difference between product of Canada and made in Canada,” she said.
Many shelf products are grown across Saskatchewan that are inherently vegan, like lentils, chickpeas and grains, Hobbs said.
A lot of these dry ingredients are then taken and used as a base for more complex plant-based products, she said.
“If we want to grow products in Canada out of season, then we're growing them in a hothouse. That's expensive. It also uses more energy. So, arguably, it's not as environmentally friendly. So, there's kind of all of this balance,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs likes to support Canadian products and, like many Canadians, is more aware now than ever.
“I was in the store the other day, I like to buy spinach for smoothies, and there were only American ones available, the Canadian ones were out of stock. So, I just bought pea shoots from Canada. Maybe that'll work instead. So, I think there's those substitutions that people are starting to make," she said.
Hobbs said it is all about taking what people will buy now, what isn’t Canadian, how people can find a Canadian substitute, or at least a non-American product, and go from there.
“And for as long as I can remember, people have been saying, we should diversify exports and diversify. So this might be the push. I think, (we need) to think about how you can have supply chains that aren't just dependent on the U.S. market, be it just in Canada, but also in other export markets from an agricultural perspective,” she said.
However, the everyday vegan can struggle to know the source of the products they need.
Anna Naumova has been vegan for more than eight years and is willing to spend more money on high-quality food, but she finds it difficult to know which grocery items are truly Canadian.
Her go-to alternative milk is Oatly or Silk, she enjoys the way they taste, but has never noticed on the packaging their origins, and when googling it she couldn't find a straight answer, she said.
“I researched what are the vegan Canadian products, and honestly, it didn't really give me a clear answer,” Naumova said.
Vegan brands like Yoso struggle to stand out against American brands despite their branding signals that they are a Canadian company, while non-Canadian brands' lack of origins on the label can mislead the consumer, Lo said.
