Canadians willing to pay a bit more for locally grown food over U.S. imports, survey says

A new survey finds Canadians are willing to spend a little bit more to support locally-grown produce, dairy and meat. CTV’s Camille Wilson reports.

A new survey by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab shows that Canadians are choosing to buy locally grown products, even if it means prices are higher.

The “Buy Canadian” movement has people more willing to keep their money within Canada due to the U.S. tariffs.

The study shows 60.8 per cent of Canadians are open to paying five to 10 per cent more for Canadian-grown produce, dairy, or meat over American alternatives.

Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, told CTV News Ottawa budgetary realities tend to push people to make different decisions, but what they are seeing with this survey is that consumers are taking advantage and want to buy more Canadian products.

“I’ve been following the food distribution landscape for 25 years in Canada, and I’ve never seen this before. Now, it is a survey, but still, when you see that almost two thirds of Canadians are willing to pay more for Canadian products, that’s quite astonishing. So, you can feel the patriotism, in grocery stores right now,” Charlebois said.

Stores are making it easier to find Canadian products and the survey explains that Loblaws came up with the policy of placing a ‘T’ mark right next to prices it says are affected by tariffs.

“We can fairly say that this trend will continue. It’s not going to end anytime soon. Despite that, there’s less anxiety now in Canada. I think, emotionally, people are still angered, and they’re pushed by that anger, by emotions, to buy Canadian products, and I don’t think it’s going to come to an end anytime soon,” said Charlebois.

Shoppers like Dagmar Horsman say it’s important to buy locally grown products.

“I know that not everybody can afford to be choosy about these things,” said Horsman. “And I’ve been avoiding things like the iceberg lettuce because so far, all I’ve found is American.”

“I’ve always tried to do that. But now, of course, with the economic war that the American have launched on Canada, I think it’s really important,” added shopper Astrid Ahlgren. “There are a lot of possibilities.”

Ahlgren adds that “we can look for the nutritional value of food that we have in our own country, and that we sometimes produce, that we often produce in our own country and keep it local.”