There is concern among many Canadian companies that a decline in U.S. business will be a struggle during the trade war, but at Hummingbird Chocolate Maker in Almonte, there’s been a shift to grow business away from the U.S. since last year. Now, with events unfolding this week, Hummingbird is locking into other markets. Owner Erica Gilmour makes the chocolate from scratch and ships her products to hundreds of stores across Canada. “We have these peanut butter cups which are one of our kind of breakout products that have been selling really well,” Gilmour said. In the past, around 16 per cent of Hummingbird Chocolate Maker’s online orders went to the U.S. Now, things have drastically changed. “It just became too challenging,” said Gilmour. “We tried to send some shipments through and they would have a lot of brokerage fees or tariffs attached to them even though chocolate, in theory, should be tariff free under the CUSMA agreement.” As the trade war intensifies, small businesses like Hummingbird Chocolates are having to pivot. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says 20 per cent of members export to the U.S. “40 per cent of that 20 per cent are being directly impacted by these new tariffs,” said Corinne Pohlmann, executive vice-president of Advocacy at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “Unfortunately, there’s been some incredible stories over the course of the last week that we’ve heard of businesses who are basically telling us that they can no longer really ship to those companies anymore in the United States.” Back in Almonte, Gilmore continues to package specialty items to go out to loyal customers, no longer south of the border. “Long term, it just really wasn’t worth it and there was just an unknown factor on what was going to happen each time we sent a shipment to them,” Gilmore said.
