Gotta read those labels...

Last week when I stopped in for a few groceries, I grabbed a jar of Co-op dill pickle slices for the next barbecue. When I got home, I was stunned to see the pickles were made in India. Just imagine the freight on those jars.

While I obviously haven’t been reading labels closely enough, other people have eagle eyes out. A caller from the Kentville area dialed in recently to ask why is chicken from Wisconsin going in the back door at Paddy’s Pub?

Fair question I thought in this day and age, so I called Brian and John Fitzgerald to ask. The father-son duo obliged by telling me about how they source food. It’s from the United Independent Purchasing Co-operative (UNIPCO), which carries out volume buying for 300 independently owned restaurants in the Maritimes.

Brian explained that there is one chicken product -- cordon Swiss uncooked breaded seasoned breast of chicken -- used by the pub chefs that UNIPCO cannot source in Canada. And he added that, “relative to our total chicken purchases it is less than one per cent.”

Non-profit co-op

Dave McTavish of UNIPCO in Moncton told me that the bulk buying, not-for-profit co-op facilitates the five or six per cent margin that makes locally owned restaurants profitable compared to the corporate behemoths.

When we chatted the topic of the Maple Leaf closure naturally came up; a savvy entrepreneur like Brian knows that a high-cost, low-tech operation is always vulnerable to closure or relocation. Look at Moirs and the Trenton rail plant.

If Maple Leaf had added value to their chicken processing, would it still be around? For example, Brian noted that all of the wings cooked at Paddy’s are purchased from Eastern Protein in Kentville.

For its 12 or 13-year history Paddy’s has been creating unique products as a matter of course. They brew their own beers, even throwing in blueberries and pumpkin. Brian added that they make their own desserts and fill their own sausage casings with pork from O.H. Armstrong in Kingston.

I was surprised to learn from him that the provincial government doesn’t do much to aid our three or four independent brewers. Nova Scotia Liquor Regulations do not allow brew pubs to sell their beer for consumption outside, but this practice is permitted on Prince Edward Island. On PEI, John said you can fill a jug at the tap and bring it home.

NSLC hoarding profits?

It would appear that the liquor commission wants to hoard all the profit on booze – seven days a week.

Hans Peter Stutz, who is one of the most collaborative and innovative of our local business owners, recently bemoaned the fact the New Brunswick Liquor Board refuses to list his hard, apple cider without giving any reason. At the Atlantica conference, he said let’s work on these stupid rules and regulations here in Canada without looking further for export. He wants, for example, to see Maritime wineries with 100 per cent local grapes selling directly to other provinces.

If you visit Tuscany, Italy, and you order a wild boar in a restaurant in San Giminiano, he points out, you get a recommendation for a Tuscany wine. If you visit a restaurant here and you order Digby scallops – you will probably get a recommendation for a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand or a Chardonnay from Australia – why not a beautiful L’Acadie Blanc from Nova Scotia?

Just trying purchasing a Grand Pre L’Acadie Blanc from the Wolfville liquor store.

Sometimes government monopolies do less to support local products than independents like the Fitzgeralds and they rarely get called on the carpet.