The ‘buy Canadian’ Movement Is Fuelling Growth For Trulocal’s Food Subscription

When truLOCAL saw tariffs coming down the pipeline, it spotted an opportunity, not a threat. 

“There’s been a meaningful and long-term sentiment shift. I don’t think Canadians are doing this because it’s the flavour of the month.”

Ghassan Halazon

The meat and seafood subscription box service, owned by Toronto-based EMERGE Commerce, exclusively uses Canadian suppliers. It has been insulated from United States (US) tariff threats as other companies, dependent on cross-border trade, have floundered in uncertainty.

Instead, truLOCAL saw its best month for new subscriptions in nearly five years. And it’s betting on a lasting shift nationwide towards a preference for local products.

In early February, when US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats were joined by annexation threats, the movement to eschew American products in favour of Canadian ones picked up. Ghassan Halazon, EMERGE CEO and president of TruLOCAL, spied an opportunity and implemented an ad campaign with a 25-percent-off promotion on its meat products.

“We called it the ‘truLOCAL retaliates’ campaign,” he told BetaKit. 

Now, the trade war has begun, and truLOCAL is a beneficiary, Halazon said. The company saw 193-percent growth in new subscribers year-over-year in February 2025, a level it hasn’t seen since May 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cost per customer acquisition also dropped by nearly 20 percent, according to truLOCAL.

Founded in 2016 by Marc Lafleur, truLOCAL got its start with a $100,000 cheque from investors Michelle Romano and Joe Mimran on the CBC business-pitching reality show Dragon’s Den, and was acquired by TSXV-listed EMERGE in 2021. The brand delivers locally sourced meats, poultry, and seafood directly to consumers through customizable subscription plans. Though it ships nationally, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia (BC) are its biggest markets and where the majority of its suppliers reside. 

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Part of its unique offering, Halazon said, is connecting local farmers with a “digital-savvy” customer base. Regional suppliers include Organic Ocean in Vancouver, Beverly Creek Farms in Millgrove, Ont., and Afishionado in Bedford, NS.  

The movement to ‘buy local’ has taken Canada and its tech ecosystem by storm. Eighty-four percent of Canadians surveyed say they considered buying more Canadian-made products in February, according to a poll by research firm Abacus Data. And Canadian tech players have been helping them do it, through searchable databases of Canadian alternatives, “buy local” shopping features, and crowd-sourced grocery-scanning apps.

Other Canadian startups in the food tech space have seen similar upticks in interest from the ‘buy local’ furor. Tre’Dish, a Toronto-based online grocery platform, told BetaKit it has seen a rise in Canadian companies signing up to sell their products on its marketplace. Now, more than 70 percent of the food products on Tre’Dish’s platform are made in Canada. 

Despite the fluid nature of the US-Canada trade war, Halazon thinks that the swell of consumer patriotism is here to stay. Compared to the pandemic, when most people made online grocery orders to avoid in-person stores, this moment is fuelled by consumer choice, informed by government and media messaging.

“There’s been a meaningful and long-term sentiment shift,” Halazon said. “I don’t think Canadians are doing this because it’s the flavour of the month. I think they’ve genuinely permanently shifted their alignment and their behaviour towards supporting local businesses and brands.”

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However, the subscription box model has also experienced a downturn since the pandemic. Consumer “subscription fatigue” has led to a broad decrease in the number of subscriptions consumers are willing to pay for at a time, from grocery items to cosmetics to news outlets.

In Canada, subscription-based consumer packaged goods startup Sampler lost product-market fit after a successful run. Montréal-based Oatbox, which once sold monthly subscriptions for oat-based products, pivoted entirely to a wholesale model for oat beverages, according to Sophie Roy, the former chief operating officer.

But truLOCAL is confident that this consumer sentiment shift will translate into sustainable growth. The startup aims to double down on its commitment to buying local through partnerships, potentially outside of meat and seafood. 

“In a time like this…we think we serve a bigger purpose,” Halazon said. “Our customers and our community trust us to continue to be transparent and to connect them with top local choices. That’s an ambition of ours.” 

Feature image courtesy EMERGE Commerce.

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