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| Canadian garlic hard to find: Support for fresh variety grows but supermarkets mostly stock Chinese |
| Source: The Chronicle Herald |
| Date: 20-Jan-2009 |
Shoppers looking for fresh garlic in most grocery chains seem to find only one supplier these days — China. Unfortunately the cloves of the popular herb are often dried out and lacking flavour from being shipped such a long distance.
But those lucky enough to have access to a farmers market can purchase Canadian-grown. And growers know they can be sure of getting a decent monetary return on their product when Canadians opt to buy garlic grown locally.
"China has been the largest supplier of garlic to Canada since 2001," says Mark Wales of Aylmer, Ont., garlic grower and vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
Prior to that the Ontario crop (95 per cent of overall production in Canada) was in season between July and December; in winter months, California, Mexico or Argentina would supply garlic.
"Then in 2001, China proceeded to dump their garlic in what I call a predatory dumping at well below the Canadian price because they wanted to destroy the industry here," says Wales.
Although Canada renewed a tariff on Chinese-grown garlic in 2002, the imports suddenly dropped from $2 million the year before to $200,000. At the same time, imports of garlic from the Philippines rose from $2 million to $6 million.
Wales says in 2007 when the tariff expired again, "the federal government asked if we wanted it reinstated. We said, ‘What’s the point, you aren’t enforcing it as the Chinese were shipping the garlic here bearing labels from Pakistan and the Philippines,’ although it was from China."
He says as a result the Canadian garlic business lost producers and has now become a cottage industry, with producers selling at farmers markets.
John Huang, overseas representative for Pretty Garlic, a division of Yafod International Ltd., a major garlic exporter in China, is based in Halifax. He acknowledges that his company and other Chinese exporters are competing with Canadian growers.
"We complement them because Canadian garlic is only grown in certain months," Huang says.
Tim Noxon, an organic garlic grower in Prince Edward County in Ontario, says he can’t keep up with the demand for his produce.
"And other farmers say they just can’t grow enough local garlic and their customers say they really notice the difference with the homegrown."
Calling garlic one of his "top 10 favourite ingredients," Chris Haworth, executive chef at the upscale Spencer’s at the Waterfront Restaurant in Burlington, Ont., says he stocks up for the winter on the locally grown in September or October each year.
He admits it is more expensive than the Chinese garlic, "but the difference in quality is phenomenal." |
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