It’s kind of a big dill.
Popular pickle brand Bick’s, which is made only for the Canadian market, is no longer on the shelves of some Canadian retailers, a consequence of the ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States.
While it’s a jarring change for many shoppers, it may push consumers to buy more homegrown options and there could be other ripple effects that affect Canadian jobs and businesses.
At several Safeway grocery stores in Edmonton, a sign on the shelf reads “Bick’s pickles are currently unavailable as an unfortunate impact of tariffs. We are pleased to offer a selection of alternatives for your shopping convenience.”
Parent company Sobeys did not respond to several requests for comment.
Pickles caught in tariff war
“We’re sad to hear that Bick’s is embroiled in this tariff dispute,” said Steven Oakland, the CEO of TreeHouse Foods Inc., which owns the Bick’s brand.
After the U.S. slapped tariffs on Canadian goods in March, the Canadian government retaliated with a long list of counter tariffs, among them a 25 per cent tariff on “cucumbers and gherkins.”
“I think a lot of retailers feel that 25 per cent tariff makes them just too expensive frankly,” Oakland said, adding that retailers started reaching out to him with cost concerns at the start of the trade war.
“The food business is a low-margin, high-volume business. And so there isn’t 25 per cent either on the retailer side or the manufacturing side. So that has, in some cases, really inhibited the retailers’ availability to justify carrying them.”
Oakland estimates that Bick’s is still available in 70 per cent of the Canadian retail environment but said the company has been doing outreach to try and change the Canadian counter tariff, including reaching out to the governor of Illinois.
‘An intertwined business’
Bick’s began as a Canadian company, was later acquired by a U.S. company and production was moved south of the border around 2014, Oakland said.
However, the ties between the two countries have stayed strong.
“We continued to prioritize Canadian cucumbers for that product. [It’s] why we went to a Canadian lid supplier… It’s just been an intertwined business and now we’ve got a border dispute that just makes that transfer back and forth across the border expensive,” he said.
While the pickles are assembled in Green Bay, Wis., Oakland said the company buys 11 million pounds of Ontario cucumbers every year and said all the lids on the jars come from an Ontario manufacturer.
Now, the company finds itself in an awkward situation or — some might even say — a pickle.
Sales are down about 25 per cent in the last three months, according to Oakland, who said, going forward, the company will buy fewer pickles and lids from its Canadian partners.
Buy Canadian sentiment
With patriotism surging amid trade tensions, many shoppers are opting to buy Canadian, but there could also be unintended consequences for a company such as Bick’s, according to experts.
“If buy Canadian means that people aren’t buying Bick’s, as an example, then Bick’s is buying fewer cucumbers from Canadian producers. Then that buy Canadian is sort of coming back to bite, pardon the pun, the Canadian farmers,” said food economist Mike von Massow from the University of Guelph.
Kwaku Afesorgbor, a professor in the department of food, agriculture and resource economics at the University of Guelph, suggests it is ultimately customers who pay the cost.
Afesorgbor said customers often end up absorbing the cost of tariffs or, if the product is no longer available, they face fewer options for what they can buy, which eventually affects their pocketbook.
‘It’s not great’
Crystal Porcher wouldn’t be offended if you called her a pickle enthusiast.
The Edmonton woman grew up eating pickles and admits to eating the crunchy snack at least twice a week.
She even has a pickle tattoo on her hands, one of 10 of her favourite food items.
“If you’re out in a pub or having a beer or whatever, they’re usually on the menu and I am guilty of just asking for a bowl of pickles, even if it’s just a side with something else,” Porcher said.
With several brands in the fridge at any given time, Porcher is still processing that pickles have been caught up in the trade war.
“Personally, it’s not great. Obviously I’m gonna be paying more for something that I love to eat. I’m not going to stop consuming an entire part of my diet because the prices increase a little bit. Obviously if I can’t find them, I’ll have to suss out some other options,” she said.
Food products caught in trade war
The issue with Bick’s spotlights how food products have been tangled up in the tariff dispute.
“There are other products that have somewhat complicated supply chains, and I suppose pickled vegetables are an example of that,” said John Cox, executive vice president of Pickle Packers International, a trade association of the pickled vegetable industry.
Cox said the organization is advocating for duty-free transportation north and south of food products under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
He argues that it is particularly important for the pickled vegetable industry, which he said is competitive with slim margins.
“When you have a 25 per cent import duty added to the cost of production, it makes it impossible to be profitable,” he said. “I’m concerned for the long-term prospects for Bick’s.”
For Oakland and TreeHouse Foods Inc., the timing couldn’t be worse.
“Having lived in Ontario myself for 11 years, I understand how important barbecue season is and I just hate that Bick’s is embroiled in this right now,” Oakland said.
