Made in Canada: Easy food and drink swaps to U.S. products, from orange juice and bourbon to your produce

The ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States is influencing consumers’ buying decisions, especially at the grocery store, where consumers are already faced with higher prices due to inflation. Canadian shoppers are opting to buy Canadian products and brands, which are exempt from tariffs. Plus, there’s the added bonus of supporting Canadian producers who may be subjected to U.S. import tariffs themselves.

In a recent poll of more than 3,300 Yahoo Canada readers, 98 per cent of them said they want to buy Canadian products whenever possible. Only two per cent said the issue didn’t concern them.

Although Trump paused tariffs on a little more than a third of Canada’s exports to the U.S., shoppers are still looking to vote with their dollars and buy products that are made in Canada. Lately, it’s been easier to know which products are Canadian: some grocery stores have labelled Canadian made products with signage to help shoppers discern which products are local, and handy guides on how to buy Canadian brands during the trade war.

Traditionally, Canada is a significant importer of food, especially fruits, vegetables, and processed foods, with the U.S. being a major supplier. In 2019, Canada was the sixth largest importer of agri-food and seafood products in the world, and the top supplying countries were the U.S., the EU, Mexico, China, and Thailand.

In 2019, Canada’s top five imports were wine, baked goods, food preparations, coffee and pet food, followed by chocolate, fresh berries, fruits and nuts, fresh vegetables, spirits and liqueurs, bottled water, crustaceans, sauce/condiments, prepared fish, and prepared meat.

We spoke with an expert to find out which easy food swaps Canadians can make for some of our biggest imports from the U.S.

Amy Robinson is the founder and executive director of LOCO BC, a Vancouver-based non-profit that helps promote buy-local initiatives to consumers, businesses and governments and an expert on how to buy local, no matter where you live in Canada. Robinson spoke to Yahoo Canada to share easy food swaps Canadians can make for some of our biggest imports from the U.S.

Easy food swaps to make

Here’s the good news: apart from some imported tropical fruits and vegetables, there are Canadian alternatives for nearly all the top imported agri-food and seafood products. It just takes a little extra time and research to find them.

Robinson herself is getting creative with her grocery list and opting for local foods, even if there’s not a direct alternative.

“My husband put broccoli and cauliflower on our grocery list. I couldn’t find anything that's local right now, it's all coming from the U.S., so I said to him, let's think about what other foods we could eat,” she said. “We're in Vancouver, so we have tons of local mushrooms. I found some local Asian greens, and we’re buying Living Lettuce that comes from Calgary.”

The first step, of course, is to read the labels first to find out whether the food item is locally or regionally made. Then, opt for produce that’s in season, even if it’s not a staple you usually go for.

“Think of the way restaurants prepare menus seasonally based on what's available — if you want to eat local and support local farmers and support local manufacturers, then build your menu around that.” This may mean eating foods like potatoes, onions, carrots, and squashes in the colder months, or local apples and pears that can be stored for long periods.

If you’re used to only shopping at the grocery store and you’re having trouble sourcing fresh produce, Robinson recommends visiting farm gate sales or farmers markets to buy from local farmers directly. Robinson recently visited a farm in Delta, B.C. and she was surprised at the variety of fresh produce they had, including beets, leeks, onions, carrots, apples.

“They get the most money from your purchase, because they’re not having to sell it to a retailer first,” she said. Farmers markets are common across Canada, with local produce, baked goods, and small businesses selling items such as jams, condiments, and sauces.

Orange juice

Swapping out oranges and orange juice from the U.S. is top of mind for many shoppers. Oranges are tough to grow in Canada, so it makes sense that in 2023 nearly half of Canada's fresh or dried orange imports came from the U.S.

However, there are alternatives, such as trying out apple juice made from Canadian apples. SunRype, based in Kelowna, makes apple juice made from 90 per cent Canadian apples — its parent company, Lassonde, is based in Canada and includes Oasis, Rougemont, Old Orchard and SunRype juices.

If you're looking to switch it up further, try Terra Beata Farms's cranberry juice, which is farmed near Lunenburg, N.S., or Patience Fruit & Co's blueberry juice, which uses blueberries sourced from Quebec and New Brunswick.

If nothing will quench your thirst like orange juice , don't fret. Brazil is actually the world's largest producer and exporter of oranges, and you can source Brazilian orange juice at the grocery store. For example, Oasis, the largest Canadian-owned juice brand, sources its oranges from Brazil. Supermarkets also stock oranges from Morocco and Portugal.

Click here for more food and beverages made in Canada

Bourbon

There are strict rules for bourbon, but bourbon-lovers looking to support Canadian brands have plenty of alternatives to their go-to Kentucky-made distilled spirit to sip and savour.

Does Canadian bourbon exist? Kind of. Technically, bourbon can only be called bourbon when it's produced in America, however, there are many Canadian distilleries producing whisky and corn whisky here at home.

Canadian whisky from brands like Crown Royal, Canadian Club and Forty Creek are tried and tested favourites, but there are plenty of other alternatives to Kentucky bourbon like Bearface and Okanagan Spirits that make bourbon-style (corn) whiskies.

Rig Hand Distillery in Edmonton is another option that makes corn whisky using grain and barley from Alberta to produce a 51 per cent corn product aged in new barrels. It meets a majority of the criteria for bourbon — it's just not made in the states.

Coffee

When it comes to finding local coffee, which is among Canada’s top imports from the U.S., Robinson recommends researching locally owned businesses. Some companies that are sold coast-to-coast include Kicking Horse Coffee, Balzac's Coffee, and 49th Parallel Coffee. There are smaller hyper-local coffee roasters across Canada, too.

“Everybody's got great local roasters near them, just discover what's in your area,” she said.

Click here for more coffee, tea and other beverages made in Canada

Baked goods

Local baked goods are easily found at farmers markets or bake sales. If you want to swap your flour products, Robinson recommends Anita's Organic Mill, a flour mill in B.C. that sources grains from Canadian farmers and mills them in Chilliwack, and then sells packaged items such as flour, oats and pancake mix at retailers across Canada.

Prepared foods

For prepared foods, Robinson recommends checking out the local aisles at the grocery store.

“I discovered this amazing cracker company called Cedar Valley,” she said. The Windsor-based company makes authentic pita chips made with 100 per cent coconut oil, and they’re sold in more than 1,300 grocery stores across Canada. “Those things are so addictive. They're amazing."

For canned foods, Robinson recommends checking out a Co-op branded grocery store: “Their Co-op products are often made in Canada and often with Canadian ingredients, like canned tomatoes.”

Nuts

Believe it or not, there are nut producers in Canada. Hazelnuts and black walnuts are grown in B.C. and in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region. In Ontario, artisan nut producer Jewels Under the Kilt sells pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, while in Vittoria, Ont., Kernal is the largest peanut grower in Canada. In Quebec, you can shop from black walnut producers like Jolies Mi-Noix and Au Jardin des noix. As always, look for producers closest to you.

Spirits and liqueurs

Provincial liquor stores have been leading the charge when it comes to hitting back against the U.S. tariffs. Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and Nova Scotia, among other provinces, have pulled American alcohol and wine off the shelves, leaving it pretty easy to shop local.

"The provincial liquor stores are pretty good in that, at the top of each aisle, it will give you the country of origin,” Robinson said. “So it’s pretty easy to go, okay, this is the aisle that I shop in.”

Canada has many wine regions from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley to Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, and throughout Ontario. Producers coast to coast make hard seltzers and sodas, like NÜTRL Vodka Seltzer in B.C., Cottage Springs in Ontario, and Blue Lobster vodka sodas out of Nova Scotia.

Small-scale craft breweries have been popping up across the country for years, and there are local breweries in every province, whether it’s Saskatchewan’s Pile O'Bones Brewing, Quebec’s Frampton Brasse, or Tatamagouche Brewing Co. in Nova Scotia.

Click here for more wine, beer & spirits made in Canada

Pet food

“My dog eats raw food, and so I buy it directly from the producer,” Robinson said. CRUDO by Surrey Meat Packers is a pet food supplier in Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver, and they also sell wholesale to retail stores.

If you’re having trouble sourcing locally-made pet food in your area, however, buying from an independently owned business still makes an impact. In fact, research from LOCO BC found that shopping at locally owned businesses creates four to eight times the economic impact of buying from multinational corporations.

“So if people can look for a locally-owned pet store, rather than buying at a gigantic supermarket or one of the big chain pet stores, they're going to know their inventory really well, and they're way more likely to stock local products," Robinson explains.

Click here for more pet food brands made in Canada

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