Maple leaf promoting U.S. canned corn sold in Ontario stores riles growers

Friday, October 23, 2015

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Made in Canada, you say?

If you’re talking about Del Monte canned corn featured in a recent No Frills flyer, that would be no — despite the maple leaf prominently on display.

The appearance of the maple leaf in an Oct. 2 flyer promoting canned corn that was processed in the United States has the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers Association so steamed that its chair complained to the head of Loblaw Companies Limited.

In a letter Thursday addressed to Galen Weston, Loblaw Companies Limited executive chairman, Jim Poel, the growers’ association chair, falls just short of calling the Canadian retail giant’s images of the canned corn in its No Frills flyer misleading. And it’s not the first time Loblaw has used such images, Poel asserts. No Frills is one of several grocery brands that Loblaw operates.

“After you’ve seen it for a while and you’ve thought about it for a while and it continues to be done as far as portraying product that’s not Canadian and making it look like it’s Canada, I guess we’ve decided that it was a good idea,” to issue the letter, says Poel in a telephone interview late Thursday afternoon.

Other than an automated response acknowledging receipt of a Better Farming email, Loblaw public relations department did not respond to email or telephone requests for comment.

photo: Image supplied by Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers Association

Al Krueger, Processing Vegetable Growers Association executive assistant, says Seneca Foods Corporation of Minnesota processes the products on behalf of ConAgra Foods Inc., which owns several Del Monte brand products in Canada. While the cans’ product labels clearly indicate the corn was processed in the United States, they are not displayed in the flyer image. Instead, featured prominently is a red and white maple leaf symbol that the brand uses to advertise its support of the Canadian Soccer Association.
 
Krueger says the board decided to issue a letter to Weston at its regular board meeting this month.

In the letter Poel alleges the canned corn is, “portrayed in a manner that would suggest to the buying public that these products are grown and preserved (canned) here in Canada.”

He describes the positioning of the cans in the image as looking like “a slickly orchestrated scheme to deceive the public into thinking that the sweet corn in question is Product of Canada.”

In the letter Poel slammed Weston for “this entire escapade” and says that it is particularly concerning because of the company’s “highly publicized attempts to position itself as a buyer of local products.”

Poel says he has not yet received a response from Weston or Loblaw.

The goal of the letter, he says, is to raise awareness that canned peas and corn are available locally, such as under Bonduelle Americas brands. Bonduelle is a subsidiary of Bonduelle Group in France. The company operates three plants in Ontario.

Consumers’ desire for Canadian and Ontario-sourced product “seems to be stronger than ever,” he explains. And product such as peas, beans and corn is available that has been sourced from Ontario growers as well as processed, canned and frozen here.

Loblaw is “free to put whatever product they want on the shelf but if the consumer would like to have Canadian products, we’d like them to consider locally-grown product that’s been processed and created employment here in Ontario,” Poel says. BF