The ketchup wars are heating up, and southwestern Ontario may come out the winner.

French’s ketchup, which has made headlines for boasting of using Canadian grown tomatoes from the Leamington area, says it’s now looking to move production across the border from Ohio.

“We are currently in negotiations on moving bottling and expanding our food service business to Canada,” said Elliott Penner, president of the French’s Food Company, owned by British conglomerate Reckitt Benckiser.

An announcement is expected in the next week. It plans to purchase 8.1 million kilograms of tomato paste for the 2016 growing season – up from anticipated order of 3.1 million kilograms just a week ago.

At stake is the ability to truly declare itself Canadian made. Although its ketchup packets are made in Toronto with Canadian tomatoes, French’s ketchup bottles sold in Canada have in very small print on the back label that they are imported.

Last week, grocery giant Loblaw reversed a decision to destock French’s ketchup, following a huge public furor over the move that included threats of a consumer boycott.

An internal memo suggested French’s ketchup was cannibalizing Loblaw’s own private brand PC ketchup, and having little effect on sales of Heinz ketchup, the Canadian Press reported.

Loblaw’s ketchup uses paste from California tomatoes, but the condiment is made in Canada.

When asked whether Loblaw would consider sourcing its tomatoes from Ontario, given the latest salvo from French’s, a spokesperson said it continues to try.

“Our PC team has worked, through our ketchup supplier, to get Leamington tomatoes. This is consistent with our commitment to always buy Canadian, if cost, quality and availability are equivalent,” said Kevin Groh, Loblaw vice president of corporate affairs, in an email.

“We have not yet found that balance, but conversations continue,” he said.

Heinz, which declined to comment on competitors’ activities, noted many of Heinz’s products are still made in Leamington. The company closed its century-old plant in 2014, throwing nearly 750 people out of work, and moved ketchup production to the United States.

But plant manager Sam Diab along with private investors took it over, under the name Highbury Canco, with a contract to make products under the Heinz label.

It now employs about 250 people, who earn less than they did with Heinz, but the plant makes products such as tomato juice, canned pasta, chili sauce, vinegar and Heinz beans.

Kathy Murphy, a spokeswoman for Kraft Heinz, said more than 70,000 metric tonnes of Heinz products are made at the Leamington plant.

The uproar over Canadian ketchup should help boost sales for locally grown and locally sourced food.

“I have never seen this kind of level of interest,” said Bill Thomas, CEO of Thomas Canning in Maidstone, Ont., which makes many organic items including ketchup.

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“It’s got good momentum, and it is consumer driven,” he said, noting it is the consumers who can tip the balance, because business and governments respond to consumers and voters.

Thomas, who supplies some tomato paste for French’s ketchup, says he’s been getting calls from secondary processors, making lasagna or spaghetti sauce, looking for bulk Canadian tomato paste.

Interest in Canadian products is exactly what Food and Beverage Ontario is banking on, as it launches a new campaign on Wednesday, called Taste Your Future.

The $1.2 million marketing campaign, which is funded by industry and the provincial and federal governments, is focused on getting young people and new Canadians to consider a career in the food processing industry.

“I will be honest we have been asleep at the switch,” said Norm Beal, CEO of Food and Beverage Ontario. “We need to figure out how to attract people to the industry.”

Too often, high school students have focused on high tech or even the auto industry, said Beal, estimating as many as 60,000 new jobs could be added in food manufacturing in Ontario by 2020.

Those jobs could be everything from “boots on the plant floor,” to food science, marketing and advertising to finance, he said.

One of the biggest growth areas will be in ethnic foods, says Sarab Hans, who took over Hans Dairy from her parents in 2006.

The dairy in Malton makes yogurt, tahini, smoothies, and rice pudding.

“The food sector isn’t seen as sexy – nobody ever talks about, even though we all eat food,” she said.

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