Juliets Room

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague today about what makes a company local/Canadian. Perhaps you’ve heard of wine companies that buy their ingredients from elsewhere, but then bottle it and call it “Canadian”. It perfectly legit, but it really irks some people who want to ‘buy local’. So by this same logic is a coffee company that gets its beans from South America but roasts them here still ‘Canadian’? I think so. I wonder if that’s because we can grow grapes here, but can’t possibly grow coffee?

I make many, and customize all, of our products here in Vancouver. But there are some that I have a company outside of Canada help with. Does this make me less of a Canadian company? But what about the ingredients that I have to source from around the world anyway: i.e. African shea butter, South American cocoa butter,  French lavender. At what point can a company say their product is  ‘Made in Canada” if someone else gave it a head start in another country (like the wine). They still put the effort into creating it, chose the taste profile, designed the brand, bottled it and sold it – all the while employing locals to do so. Isn’t that what makes a local company?

If I only sold Shea Butter from Africa am I a Canadian company or an African company? I’m guessing you’re thinking Canadian. What if I only sold American beer? Do we as Canadians simply prefer that our imports come from anywhere other than south of the border?

I would love to know your thoughts on this.