by Tod Maffin • YouTube, Bluesky, and others

📸 Photo by Dirk Heydemann, HA Photography

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Perhaps like you, I’ve been surprised and increasingly frustrated by the amount of American produce still lining my local grocery store shelves, especially during a season when Canada is able to grow a lot more.

I decided to find out just how widespread the issue is.

I recently conducted an in-person study of the fresh produce sections of nine grocery store brands in my city of Nanaimo BC. The goal was to document what proportion of their offerings were American products or where the country of origin was ambiguous.

I manually counted and logged 2,203 unique produce SKUs, ranging from loose apples and packaged mushrooms to bags of lettuce and cartons of berries. (Audit methodology is available here.)

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These data reflect only what I observed at a single Nanaimo location of each brand, at the time of my visit. It should not be interpreted as representative of the company’s operations as a whole, other stores in the chain, or different times of year.

I am not a statistician, auditor, or food industry professional. I have no formal training in statistical analysis, auditing, supply chain logistics, or grocery retail operations. This project reflects personal observations gathered independently and informally, and should not be interpreted as a professional audit, investigative report, or expert analysis. The information provided here is based on publicly available product labelling at select grocery store locations. It may not reflect the full range of products available at other locations or at other times. Readers should not rely on this information for any commercial, financial, or legal decisions. While every effort was made to record the data accurately, I make no guarantees regarding its completeness or accuracy.

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Findings

Overall

Across all nine stores I audited, I found that 40.4% of items were either labeled as American or the country of origin could not be determined.

By ownership group

The chart below shows the averaged USA/Ambiguous produce averaged across only those Nanaimo stores I visited which share ownership.

I am not implying that these numbers represent a measured average of any other stores under their management other than those I audited.