A trade fight that once felt distant from the grocery aisle is now reshaping how some Canadians shop—and how small manufacturers sell. In Bowmanville, Ontario, parchment-paper converter aVenco Ltd. says direct-to-consumer demand exploded after the latest U.S. tariff escalation, rising from roughly 20 orders over two years to hundreds in just one week.
The surge offers a striking snapshot of the renewed Buy Canadian movement. At the same time, aVenco’s U.S. business, previously responsible for about 30 to 40 per cent of sales, has stalled. The result is a company being squeezed at the border while discovering an unexpectedly enthusiastic domestic customer base at home—a pattern that reveals both the power and the limits of consumer patriotism during a deepening Canada-U.S. trade dispute.
Two Years of Orders Arrived in Days
aVenco’s sudden order rush is remarkable partly because the company says it was never designed around household fulfillment. President Kathleen Chapman told The Canadian Press that direct-to-consumer sales had been tiny: about 20 orders in two years. After the latest tariff escalation, that changed almost overnight. Hundreds of orders arrived within a week, forcing the Bowmanville manufacturer to pivot toward individual buyers even though its business was built primarily around retailers, distributors and private-label customers.
That is a significant operational shift for a small manufacturer. aVenco’s own website describes a Bowmanville operation with capacity for roughly 10 million units and a customer base centred on retail and wholesale channels. Moving from pallets and commercial accounts to many smaller consumer orders changes packaging, customer service and fulfillment demands. Yet the company says Canadians are actively seeking it out. For aVenco, the Buy Canadian response is no longer an abstract expression of support; it is showing up as a sudden stream of paid orders.
The U.S. Market Suddenly Became Much Harder to Reach
The domestic surge is arriving just as aVenco’s U.S. channel has become far more difficult. Chapman said American business had accounted for roughly 30 to 40 per cent of sales but has effectively stalled under the new tariff environment. She said discussions with U.S. customers have largely stopped, turning what had been an important export market into a source of uncertainty almost immediately.
The timing fits a much larger escalation. The federal government says the United States imposed a 50 per cent tariff on $27.6 billion worth of Canadian goods effective August 22, 2026. aVenco separately told The Canadian Press that its baking paper now faces a 50 per cent tariff because it is prepared and converted in Canada. For a smaller producer, a tariff of that scale can erase the price advantage needed to win or retain American accounts. Domestic demand can soften the blow, but replacing a major export channel with household orders is a very different commercial model.
aVenco Shows How Complicated “Made in Canada” Supply Chains Can Be
aVenco’s experience also illustrates how modern Canadian manufacturing can depend on an international supply chain. The company sources raw parchment paper from France, then converts and prepares the product in Bowmanville. That means value is being added in Ontario even though an important input originates overseas. The company says it has built partnerships to secure raw materials while maintaining Canadian converting, packaging and distribution capacity.
That structure has become more exposed as tariff policy reaches across multiple origins and stages of production. Chapman said the company was first affected by U.S. tariffs involving European goods because of its French paper supply, then faced the newer 50 per cent tariff tied to its Canadian conversion. The lesson is broader than parchment paper. A factory can be physically located in Canada, employ Canadian workers and perform substantial processing here while still relying on foreign inputs. In a tariff fight, origin rules and cross-border sourcing can suddenly become major cost and market-access issues.
Consumers Appear to Be Moving Faster Than Retailers
aVenco’s order spike is also exposing a gap between consumer demand and retail shelf space. Chapman said Canadian shoppers appear to be moving faster than retailers, with people searching for domestic products and contacting the company directly when they cannot easily find them in stores. That helps explain why a manufacturer that was not structured for consumer fulfillment suddenly found itself shipping directly to households.
The same pattern appeared elsewhere after the August tariff escalation. The Canada List, a website that ranks products according to their contribution to the Canadian economy, reported an estimated 10,000 per cent jump in daily traffic over several days. Retail Council of Canada president Kim Furlong has said retailers are trying to highlight Canadian and tariff-affected products but can hesitate because country-of-origin claims are complex and mistakes can trigger criticism. Shelf space therefore becomes more than a merchandising decision: it is the point where consumer intent either converts into a Canadian sale or disappears.
Buy Canadian Is Showing Up in Actual Spending Data
The renewed enthusiasm is not based only on anecdotes. Bank of Canada researchers examined transaction-level grocery data from a panel of about 10,000 Canadian households and found a measurable shift after trade tensions intensified in 2025. In March of that year, the share of food spending associated with Canadian-licensed products rose by about two percentage points from January, while the U.S. share fell by roughly the same amount. The shift persisted through the summer.
The researchers were careful about an important limitation: product barcodes identify where a product is licensed through GS1, not necessarily where every ingredient was grown or where every manufacturing step occurred. Even so, the pattern provides stronger evidence than social-media sentiment alone. It shows that at least some shoppers changed what they bought. The Bank also found larger changes in categories such as coffee and fruit juice, while noting that counter-tariffs and resulting price changes may also have influenced those decisions.
Canadian Loyalty Still Has a Price Limit
Patriotism, however, does not eliminate the household budget. BDC research released in April 2026 found that nearly six in 10 Canadian consumers were willing to pay more for local, provincial or Canadian-made products. But the same study found that price still drives most purchases for roughly two-thirds of consumers, and only about four in 10 said Canadian-made products were easy to identify.
Bank of Canada consumer research points to a similar ceiling. In its fourth-quarter 2025 survey, three-quarters of respondents said they were not willing to pay more than an additional 10 per cent for Canadian-made goods. High prices, economic uncertainty and housing costs were already weighing on spending plans. That tension matters for companies such as aVenco. A rush of supportive orders can create momentum, but long-term loyalty will still depend on competitive pricing, convenient access and product quality. Buy Canadian can open the door; it does not suspend normal consumer economics.
Finding a Truly Canadian Product Is More Complicated Than It Looks
One reason Canadian buying can be harder than it sounds is that origin labels are not a simple yes-or-no test. For non-food goods, Competition Bureau guidance generally sets a much higher bar for “Product of Canada” than for “Made in Canada.” A “Product of Canada” claim normally requires at least 98 per cent of direct production or manufacturing costs to be incurred in Canada, while “Made in Canada” generally requires at least 51 per cent, the last substantial transformation in Canada and an appropriate qualifying statement about imported content.
Food products use related federal guidance administered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. “Product of Canada” generally means all or virtually all major ingredients, processing and labour are Canadian, while “Made in Canada” focuses on the last substantial transformation and requires qualification when ingredients are imported. aVenco itself describes MyParchment as prepared in Canada with Canadian components. For shoppers, that nuance explains why identifying a genuine Canadian economic contribution can require more than spotting a maple leaf on a package.
Other Canadian Manufacturers Are Diversifying Too
aVenco is not the only manufacturer rethinking its dependence on the U.S. market. G.E. Barbour Inc., the Sussex, New Brunswick company behind brands including King Cole Tea and Nuts About Peanut Butter, told The Canadian Press that roughly half of its sales currently come from the United States. Its products were tariff-exempt at the time of the report, but president Jeff Rose said the company could not assume that would remain true.
Barbour has therefore been expanding its sales efforts in Quebec and Ontario, promoting its Canadian roots and looking more aggressively beyond the United States. It is also preparing an online marketplace aimed at Canadian brands that may not have broad retail distribution. The strategy is notable because Barbour is not a new company reacting impulsively: its official history dates the business to 1867. When a manufacturer with more than 150 years of operating history decides that geographic diversification is necessary, it underscores how tariff uncertainty is changing long-established assumptions about North American commerce.
Canada’s Trade Numbers Explain Why Diversification Matters
Canada’s national trade data show why individual companies are taking diversification seriously. Statistics Canada reported that 71.7 per cent of Canadian merchandise exports went to the United States in 2025, down from 75.9 per cent in 2024. Exports to the U.S. fell 5.8 per cent during the year, while exports to countries other than the United States rose 17.2 per cent.
That does not mean Canada has suddenly replaced its American market. The U.S. remains by far the country’s largest destination for goods, and decades of integrated production cannot be redirected quickly. Still, the direction of travel is important. Statistics Canada said total merchandise trade with non-U.S. countries rose 14.3 per cent in 2025 to $553 billion. aVenco’s predicament is therefore a small-scale version of a national challenge: preserve access to the huge U.S. market where possible, while building enough domestic and overseas demand that one tariff decision cannot determine the fate of an entire product line.
Canada’s Response Could Reinforce the Domestic Shift
The federal response may give Canadian producers more room to adapt, but it also signals that the dispute is entering a more entrenched phase. Ottawa says it will impose matching counter-tariffs of 15, 25 and 50 per cent on $27.6 billion of U.S. imports beginning September 8. The government has also announced a new $7.5-billion package of support for tariff-affected workers and businesses, including additional regional-development funding, liquidity support through BDC and money for diversification projects.
For manufacturers, those programs may help with cash flow, investment or market development, but they cannot manufacture customer loyalty on their own. aVenco’s sudden burst of Canadian orders shows what can happen when consumer sentiment, national identity and purchasing decisions align. The next test is whether retailers allocate more shelf space, whether shoppers keep seeking domestic alternatives once the initial shock fades, and whether producers can scale direct sales without losing efficiency. Hundreds of orders in a week are a powerful signal. Turning that signal into durable growth will be harder—and far more important.
