The family behind one of Canada’s most well-known ice cream brands says they’re absorbing 'all immediate increases in our costs' as the U.S.-Canada trade war heats up.
Ashley Chapman, chief operating officer at Ontario-headquartered Chapman’s Ice Cream, said in a statement circulating on social media that the family decided to take that measure for the rest of the year to maintain their prices.
Chapman said they wanted to do their part to support Canadians as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten economic annexation, which Chapman called the “greatest threat to our sovereignty” since the Second World War.
What percentage of the cost of ice cream comes from US sources? Ice cream base is cream/milk egg and sugar. Chocolate doesn't grow in the US, nor does vanilla. Maybe some nuts and fruits would come from the States. Anything else would be chemical stuff like artificial flavours, emulsifiers, stabilizers and preservatives. Packaging?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for what Chapman's is doing but I wonder how much is symbolic and what it actually means to the price of a tub of ice cream.
For what it's worth, Chapman's is a Canadian owned brand, meaning that the profits stay in Canada. I've also heard from several folks online that they do good in their community and do right by their employees. No experience myself though.
Do we buy Heinz ketchup now, because they now produce almost all of it sold in Canada in Quebec now? There's the additional factor that they were all too willing to screw over the people in Leamington back in 2014, but the question remains the same: Where's the most good for Canadians?
Icecream use a lot of stabilizers and other chemical products that are not always easy to get (my wife is a pastry chef and works a lot with icecreams, and was always frustrated because some really good chemicals couldn't be found on Rio de Janeiro and we're only imported to São Paulo)