Kraft Heinz hits back at what it called Trudeau’s ‘misleading’ comment about its Canadian ketchup

A ketchup giant is seeing red after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brought up its past exit from Canada while discussing a potential Canada-U.S. trade war.

Speaking with reporters after a Wednesday meeting with the premiers, Trudeau urged consumers to seek out Canadian-made products to avoid U.S. imports that could soon be more costly because of retaliatory tariffs.

“That’s why we will look, as we have in the past, at things that have replacements for Canadian consumers that wouldn’t be tariffed,” Trudeau said. “The example from last time was Heinz’s ketchup being replaced by French’s ketchup because French’s was still using Canadian tomatoes in its ketchup.”

While it is true that Heinz was not making ketchup in Canada at the time, the company says that changed several years ago.

Kraft Heinz Canada kept nothing bottled up in a statement issued Thursday, saying it is “deeply disappointed” that Trudeau made “misleading statements” about its product.

In 2014, Heinz sold off its hundred-year old tomato processing plant in Leamington, Ont., leaving local farmers and workers in the lurch and setting off a rivalry with French’s. But after fierce consumer backlash, Heinz returned to producing ketchup in Canada in 2020.

In its statement, Kraft Heinz says it employs more than 1,000 Canadians at its facility in Mont Royal, Que., and is the largest purchaser of tomatoes in Ontario.

“We were resolute in our decision to bring the production of HEINZ Ketchup back to Canada in 2020 and are proud that HEINZ Ketchup is made in Canada, by Canadians, using Canadian tomatoes,” the statement said. 

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Monday that he could hit Canada with a sweeping 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods on Feb. 1, sparking a series of discussions among federal and provincial politicians about how to respond.