Canada trade war: Juice 'prepared in Canada' with U.S. oranges doesn't sit right with Canadian shoppers

Yahoo

04-04-2025

As many Canadians commit to boycotting products from the U.S. amid a continuing tariff war by Donald Trump, there is one grocery staple that is proving difficult to spurn entirely: orange juice. Since Canadian year-round temperatures make growing oranges nearly impossible — they need warm subtropical or tropical climates to grow — they are almost always imported from other countries, like the U.S. and Brazil.
And only some companies who sell orange juice in Canada actually turn the fruit into juice here — with the fruit itself from other countries. This fact is a point of frustration for some Canadian shoppers who took to Reddit in a post on the popular "Loblaws Is Out of Control" thread titled: "F*** this 'prepared in Canada' BS."
The post by user TheUtopianCat, which has garnered more than 400 comments, shows a flyer highlighting products that are "prepared in Canada," and includes a bottle of President's Choice orange juice. But the bottle itself fails to identify where the oranges are actually from.
'As long as the oranges are from anywhere but the U.S. I'm good,' user keylimesicles wrote. 'This seems like a deliberate attempt to hide the fact that these oranges are in fact from the U.S.'
This seems like a deliberate attempt to hide the fact that these oranges are in fact from the U.S.One expert tells Yahoo Canada this is a missed marketing opportunity for some juice makers.
David Soberman is a marketing professor at Rotman School of Management. He says the recent marketing of where the juice is prepared doesn't mean all the ingredients are from Canada.
'The issue of 'prepared in Canada' is something companies have started to highlight but it doesn't guarantee that the oranges weren't grown in the U.S.,' he tells Yahoo Canada.
He says on a recent trip to the grocery store, he noticed orange juice products didn't indicate where the oranges came from. He suspects Canadian companies, like President's Choice, import bulk oranges from the U.S., which are then processed and packaged in Canada, a cheaper method than importing from other countries where oranges are grown.
'Oranges are low value per kilo, and because of that, the geographic distance of something to be transported makes a big difference,' he says. 'There are very convenient highways that trucks can bring oranges into Canada from parts of the U.S., where oranges are grown."
Morocco, Mexico, Brazil and Egypt also grow oranges. But the distance the oranges would have to travel to make it to Canada is much larger — simple geography.
In 2023, Canada imported $595 million in fruit juice, $281 million of which (about 47 per cent) came from the U.S. Juices from Brazil were second-most imported that year, at $103 million (or 17 per cent).
Still, there are other options when it comes to sourcing oranges and orange juice. Brazil is actually the world's largest producer and exporter of oranges, and Oasis, the largest Canadian-owned juice brand, sources its oranges from there. Soberman says now is the time for Canadian companies whose juices are made from non-U.S. oranges to capitalize on this as shoppers shun American items.
'There's a marketing opportunity, given the trends,' he says. 'If you said 'produced 100% with Mexican oranges', I'm sure people would choose that if it cost the same and tasted as good.'
Still, it seems like some Canadians are prepared to adjust their diets to exclude orange juice altogether.
A New Brunswick bed and breakfast owner recently decided to swap orange juice made from Florida oranges from her menu, to apple cider, pressed by one of her neighbours.
Others in the comments of the Reddit posts said they planned to change their OJ habits.
'If it's prepared in Canada, presumably it employs at least a few Canadians,' user 200iso wrote. 'But if you're going to go all vegan about buying Canadian... yeah, you'll probably have to stop drinking orange juice. We don't grow many oranges in Canada.'
'So what about not drinking orange juice,' moldibread wrote. 'I stopped buying it years ago. I do buy citrus fruits from Spain, and Morocco all the time, and I drink water.'