I tried to get on with this “Buy Canadian” protest. But ketchup, a basic north American staples far as I’m concerned, has no major Canadian only manufacturers. The only stuff you can find is boutique stuff that’s like 10 bucks for 500ml. and you have to have it shipped to you.
Heinz used to make ketchup in Leamington ON, with locally grown tomatoes. They closed it down in 2014, choosing to bring ketchup in from other facilities in the US.
Heinz had also started making mustard, the main product of French’s. French’s decided to take advantage of the opportunity to strike back and took over the old Heinz facility in Leamington and began making ketchup out of the same tomatoes that Heinz had been using in Canada.
Since then, French’s has been bought out by McCormick, and moved production to London, ON. The Leamington Facility is now Highbury Canco, and it does private label manufacturing. Heinz has restarted ketchup production in Montreal, using tomato paste from the Highbury Canco plant, their own old facility.
Meanwhile Primo Foods makes a ketchup, made in Canada. Primo is owned by Sun-Brite, a Canadian company, so that’s the trifecta. There’s also that old plant in Leamington, Highbury-Canco that does private label/co-pack. Canada has lots of food manufacturing, at places like Delmar Foods, Luda, Hall’s Kitchen, Giraffe Foods. This means when you buy a house brand from a Canadian retailer like Western Family or Compliments, there is a decent chance it’s made in Canada by one of these private label manufacturers.