Canada is exempting key imported Passover foods from the current diplomatic trade war with the United States. The ministry of finance sent The CJN a list of kosher-for-Passover products imported from the U.S., which are going to be allowed into Canada without being hit by the extra 25-percent retaliatory import tariffs that Ottawa began imposing on March 4.
The list includes matzah and related matzah products, cake mixes, chocolate, margarine, most juices (but not apple), gefilte fish, and canned fruit and vegetables. However, U.S. exports of nuts, spices, dairy, wine, coffee, chicken and meat products are not exempt.
The development comes after Canada’s biggest kosher food importer recently predicted that the on-again-off-again tariff dispute would rocket prices for imported kosher-for-Passover food by up to 60 percent. Canadian Jewish leaders have been lobbying Ottawa to give relief to the country’s Jewish community as it heads into the holiday season.
While the news will likely bring a sigh of relief to consumers, it is only a temporary reprieve: it covers only Passover foods and runs only until the end of Passover.
For more on how these food tariffs are impacting Canadian kosher food stores and suppliers across Canada, and what advice they have for you, we’re joined on today’s episode of The CJN Daily by the owners of Vancouver’s Kosher Food Warehouse, Tal Kinstlich and Stephanie Schneider. Jack Hartstein also returns: he’s the vice president of Montreal-based Altra Foods, the largest importer of kosher foods in Canada.
Related links
- Read the list of imported Passover items to be exempt from Canadian tariffs, posted on the Canadian government’s website.
- Why kosher food prices for Passover are likely to jump by up to 60 percent this year, on The CJN Daily.
- Learn more about the Kosher Food Warehouse in Vancouver.
Transcript:
Doug Ford, Ontario Premier: I’m going to put a 25% tariff on the electricity, the 1.5 million homes and businesses as of Monday until President Trump drops these tariffs. That’s the last thing I want to do. It’s the last thing. But he has to understand that he can’t attack our country economically and expect us to roll over.
Ellin Bessner, The CJN Daily: That’s Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaking to a Toronto radio station about the U.S.-imposed trade war against Canada, which continues to roil the stock markets and create economic problems on both sides of the border. Even though last week the Trump administration hit pause once again for another month on adding 25% tariffs on some Canadian imports like aluminum and steel and potash. But Canada did didn’t back down. It started enforcing an initial tranche of tariffs on $30 billion worth of American products, which means an extra 25% on American meat and chicken and coffee, dairy, nuts, spices and orange juice and peanut butter. And you’ve all heard about the situation with wine and liquor. Ontario and Quebec liquor stores went one step further to try to fight back and the SAQ and the LCBO have removed Manischewitz and other U.S. Kosher wines and liquor from their shelves. Now, as far as Passover goes, for years the Canadian government has usually exempted many key prepackaged imported kosher items for Passover. There’s even a law about it. It’s called the Passover Products Remission Order. But this year, because of all the trade war problems with the U.S. it wasn’t clear whether this Passover exemption from tariffs would happen. Late Friday, the Canadian Finance Ministry told us yes indeed, it still status quo this year too. And they sent me a list of what’s exempt.
Male voice: Matzah and matzah products, cake mix, pancake mix and baked goods, canned fish and fish products other than pickled herring, canned fruits and vegetables, chocolate, candy and gum, but not those fruit jelly, candy or jelly rings, not chocolate covered jellies, not also for chocolate covered marshmallows and chocolate covered orange peels. Exemptions do cover dried apples, grape-seed oil, jam, jelly powders and puddings, juices, but not apple juice, margarine, olives, potato chips, salad dressings and ketchup. Soups including borscht, and gravies, tomato ketchup, tomato paste tomato puree and tomato sauce, vegetable shortening and vinegar.
Ellin Bessner, The CJN Daily: I’m Ellin Bessner and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Monday, March 10, 2025. Welcome to the CJN Daily, a podcast of the Canadian Jewish news and made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation. Since the tariff crisis started, Canadian Jewish leaders have been lobbying the government to have sympathy for the Jewish community, whose members need to observe special dietary rules for the upcoming Passover holiday beginning April 12 to April 20. Many of the required products are only made in the United States, like Manischewitz and Streit’s and Gefen brands. And while there are also no tariffs on Passover products from elsewhere, especially Israel, getting those all here still poses challenges for kosher grocers. The news of the reprieve for this Passover will be welcome for Vancouver’s Tal Kinstlich and his wife Stephanie Schneider. They own the Kosher Food Warehouse on Kingsway, where nearly 95% of their stock for Passover comes in from the U.S. The couple has been losing sleep over the trade war. And even with the latest exemptions for Passover, they know it’s hard to do business with the higher energy and the transport costs, inflation and all the uncertainty. Plus, they’re worried they’d have to jack up prices so high it would make the cost of kosher food unaffordable. Tal Kinstlich and Stephanie Schneider join me now.
Stephanie Schneider, Kosher Food Warehouse Vancouver: Hi, Ellin, how are you?
Ellin Bessner, The CJN Daily: Well, it’s good to speak to you. Thank you so much for agreeing to come on and tell us how things are in your business. You’re about, what, 10 minutes away from the JCC, give or take, by 10, 15 minutes?
Tal Kinstlich: Well, yeah, Vancouver, it’s pretty small. I would say 20 minutes. You can reach to the whole city. It seems like a lot of Jewish people now living in the east side compared to the west side compared like a decade ago.
Stephanie Schneider: We’ve got Reuben’s Deli opening up around the corner from us, which we’re very, very excited about. JCC’s right around the corner. Oak and 41 takes maybe 15 minutes drive. So.
Ellin Bessner: All right, let’s talk specifically about what you’ve been going through since President Trump was reelected and he started talking about tariffs.
Stephanie Schneider: Of course, the biggest thing is it gives us a lot of uncertainty, but we have to prepare either way for what comes. First and foremost we started to see what can we get that’s made in Canada. And, you know, it’s plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D. At this point, what do we do? We did a few things. We talked to all of our suppliers. We said, ‘What are we doing timeline wise, what is this going to look like? Are we going to have price increases coming?’ And they basically said the same thing, likely price increases.
Tal Kinstlich: All of them say Yes, yes, yes and yes.
Stephanie Schneider Yes. Late price increases. So we things that we were doing to prepare is we started looking at well, what can we get just from Canada, can we try and lower. We did some internal expense account audits just to see, you know, where are we having some larger expenses and where can we cut back in order to not pass on all of these increased prices onto our customers. So we’re looking at reducing shipping, trying to find goods from LA and Las Vegas even. Because if it’s going to come over the border then maybe we can try and reduce shipping costs and already have it from the West. Let’s see if we can make something happen there. Because if it’s coming in, if Manischewitz is coming in from New York, going to [Montreal’s] Altra Foods, they get a tariff hit there and then we got to pay for shipping. So maybe we can try and reduce the shipping costs. On our end we’re looking at buying more Crown products which is Altra Foods’ own brand. So that won’t have necessarily the big price increase increases on there. So yeah, Kayco is the big brand that Altra Food gets a lot of their brands in from.
Ellin Bessner: So isn’t Kayco Manischewitz?
Stephanie Schneider: And yeah, Kedem.
Tal Kinstlich: Unfortunately, nothing produced in B.C. or Alberta. Something that’s closer to the west side of Canada, as the community is way bigger on the east side. But in all of those big companies there is something that called east side prices and west side prices and completely different.
Ellin Bessner: And it’s always what is that? So they charge you because you’re so far away? They can charge you more because you are desperate?
Tal Kinstlich: Whereas if, but you have to take the freight on you, there is a lot of ways that you basically get a bit…
Ellin Bessner: You can say it, it’s not an R rated podcast. It’s okay.
Tal Kinstlich : We get a little screwed over being out West.
Stephanie Schneider: Get a little screwed.
Tal Kinstlich: I think not only us, the whole community in here screwed up. You know, all Jews and all Israeli people know Elite, for example. Elite the brand. The fights and the struggle to get Elite brand into the West side is completely out of our control, out of our end. I was talking with my supplier and they’re all like, saying. you’re not getting that.
Ellin Bessner: What kind of coffee are we gonna have for Pesach if we don’t have Elite coffee? Right?
Tal Kinstlich: Great question, great question. I sometime wonder if the rabbinical community here can come toward us more and toward the community more in this way. And I think that’s, I think my wife talked about approaching it in a different angle. If we cannot import ourselves or bringing it in a decent price, we will have to create and produce our own.
Stephanie Schneider: Yeah, I think for years and years, you know, Tal and I are young. We bought the business in 2022. We’ve seen a couple new owners of kosher places in Vancouver in the last few years. And you know, there’s been a lot of talk about trying to get some type of shift out West to make a more thriving Jewish community be able to live here. And it’s tough. And you know, we’re talking a lot more about being a small business now, I think versus necessarily the impacts of tariffs. But it all is combined,in my opinion. It’s tough. We were chatting about the Superstore on Marine Drive having a large kosher section and they, as a large company, they have a few benefits of having a lot of non-kosher products that they can fall back on to not feel a hit in a lot of those ways. They have their own shipping. So the east coast prices, you see east coast prices out here at Superstore, you don’t see west coast prices in Superstore. Whereas a small business like us, we don’t have our own shipping team. We’re not a franchise. We’re one single company in Vancouver. And we just do not have the mass networks in order to bring it all out here. But we do our best. You know, we talk with our shipping companies. They’ve been wonderful with us, giving us a little bit of a break here and there.
Ellin Bessner: Let’s dig down a little bit about the tariffs. You said that you tried to do some internal economies in January. Okay. When you knew this was coming, did you pre order as much as you could get early? Did you try to get stuff in early?
Stephanie Schneider: We did, but a lot of companies don’t even have…Like, matzo ball mix is not kosher for Pesach yet. So it all depends on when companies can put the Kosher for Passover stamp on it. When they’ve done their cleaning, everything’s come out, it’s full over. They can put the stamp on it. So we’re kind of restricted as much that we can bulk up. We have a few cases from last year of products that, you know, obviously kosher Le Pesach, but it’s past the year best before date cut off, and we don’t want.
Ellin Bessner: I still have stuff in my basement from like three years ago of matzo meal, but whatever, we won’t go there! I want to hear more about the affordability and the accessibility for people who want to keep kosher and how these new tariffs are going to add more difficulty. Could you explain your feelings about this?
Tal Kinstlich: You want to talk about tariffs? Even before the tariffs, I went to the companies, I told them that, one day, the community will no longer be kosher because it’s not affordable. And that’s before the tariffs.
Stephanie Schneider: Yeah, Tal and I, when we bought this business, because we saw how much will we struggle, but we also saw financially with keeping kosher and we saw how much our customers have come in and said ‘What is going on? What is happening?’ You know, we’re still feeling ripple effects from COVID economically and we have seen people who are using the Jewish food services more frequently now, whom we donate to. We try and give as much as we can as well like that we can work with. But it has been very difficult for people. And when we bought this business, we had a really good chat with ourselves and our silent partner, David Alon, and we said our main value and main goal is to try and keep kosher and have it be more accessible and more affordable. And in a market where there’s not many of us, it’s not a very competitive market. It is very difficult to do this. It’s quality meat, it’s quality groceries that we’re having. And the first rule of retail is that you can’t have quality and cheap. Those two things just don’t seem to go together very much. So it’s become very, very difficult for the community. And the tariffs add another big hurdle to affordability. And we’re going to see a lot more people going to Jewish food services during this Pesach. or moving.
Tal Kinstlich: Yeah, they’re moving, making Aliyah. They’re going to or going to New York or going to LA or going to Toronto or Quebec. You can see that. But a lot of Israelis are coming over, and they care less care about Kosher. I would say some of them care, but more care about the Elite coffee than the kosher chicken.
Ellin Bessner: So what are you going to be able to do to absorb some of the [costs] if the tariffs do come back? Had you have you discussed with each other how much of the increase you’re going to eat, I mean, absorb and how much you’re going to pass on and what challenges that face for you?
Stephanie Schneider: We at this point can’t afford to absorb more than 5%. Bottom line and I’m talking about just being able to continue business. I’m not talking about mass profits to keep things going. So that’s what we can do. You know, we are working with finding different options like not just in groceries, but I’m talking about what cuts of meat can we get that are a little more affordable and maybe we bulk up on some of those. Our chicken. Our prices aren’t increasing but the amount that we’re purchasing, we’re purchasing more chicken this Passover because in general it’s cheaper than steaks or lamb or brisket.
And we’re trying to work with all of our suppliers the best we can to to see those spots and see those pockets where we can get a little bit more of this and much less of the fancier cuts.
Tal Kinstlich: Yeah, it’s the same for dry goods products, as Steph and I talked about it and we said like okay, let’s focus on more of base products that everybody needs for Passover, and yet it’s coming into. We are living on the West coast and the east coast will get that inventory first. And whatever we have left, we will receive. And if we don’t have left, we’ll have to buy the more expensive, as we are paying for the freight as well.
Ellin Bessner: How much of your stock, like how much stuff do you get that’s from the States and how much from elsewhere?
Stephanie Schneider: Like 95% is from the States. There is very little that comes from Canada or Israel. Of groceries, 90 to 95% we’re looking at Made in USA.
Ellin Bessner: And the meat and stuff? Where did you get that from? Mehadrin and Shefa?
Stephanie Schneider: Yes, they have told us that it is impacting them as well, somehow. I don’t know the ins and outs from Kosher Mehadrin and Shefa, but we have been told that has happened and we have seen some increases. Not as large as we’re going to see on general goods and groceries. Definitely from Altra as the cattle price did not very much increase compared to the cacao bean. apparently.
Ellin Bessner: Yeah. Cacao beans, chocolate is craziness. Yeah.
Stephanie Schneider: Even since 2022, our meat and poultry increases have been truly minimal compared to groceries increases.
Ellin Bessner: Your message for your customers, for the next five weeks till Pesach?. What should they do? What should they expect?
Stephanie Schneider: I have some pretty strong opinions on this. I’m very much about approaching a problem from multiple angles. One of those angles: get political, talk with your MPs as well. The more people we have talking to our MPs and MPPS about the impacts that these retaliatory tariffs are having on us, the better. And to try to exclude kosher goods from those retaliatory tariffs.
Second of all, buy local, support local businesses that are dealing with these issues, as well and try and support folks in that regard.
And unfortunately, I would say they’re going to feel a hit this year for Pesach, trying to work together as communities. If it means bulking orders together, coming together to order large amounts at one time, that can save some folks some money.
Ellin Bessner: And we might have an election in the next couple of days or weeks and the government may change, things will happen, but…these tariffs are now off until April. Having that extra few weeks, has that, is that a good thing for you? How are you taking this news?
Stephanie Schneider: Yes, As soon as I found out this morning that that was a break, it is a huge sigh of relief. But we cannot keep our foot off the gas because of the uncertainty of the U.S. President and how things seem to be changing very kind of day to day. Even if tariffs get cut in half or they get increased, he was saying if we do 25%, then he’s going to do 50%. There’s a whole world of uncertainty around here and we need to continue to prepare for that moving forward. This Pesach next, Rosh Hashanah, everything.
Tal Kinstlich: As a guy that lived most of his life in Israel, I grew up in a kibbutz. From a young age, I grew up doing agriculture and I realized how important it to every country have their own resources to rely on. And if we cannot rely on the United States, maybe we should rely on what we have here and maybe develop it a bit into the Jewish side.
Ellin Bessner: Well, you know, the market is very small. I mean you will have 20 to 25,000 Jews in the Lower Mainland.
Stephanie Schneider: I would say there is more. There’s 40, closer to 40.
Tal Kinstlich: But if you’re talking about keeping kosher, yeah, 20,000 or 15,000 maybe.
Ellin Bessner: But everybody keeps kosher for Pesach. They all buy matzah. Everyone wants to make Pesach. So this is like your big time of year and it’s your big money maker, right? This is a big period for you.
Stephanie Schneider: We love seeing people once a year. Come on in. We love them no matter how often they come.
Tal Kinstlich: No such a thing as a small customer here!
Music
Ellin Bessner: Now, Montreal’s kosher certification group, MK Kosher and the Jewish Community Council of Montreal are urging Canadian entrepreneurs to seize the moment of this trade war with the U.S. and start manufacturing kosher food here at home instead of being so reliant on foreign imports. And while we’re still on the topic of tariffs, a little known item that’s buried in the fine print of all of this, is what Canada will start taxing next month if a second round is needed: prayer shawls, Talitot, imported from the USA. We asked Ottawa why they’re singling out prayer shawls, and their answer was “Given the scope of the U.S. action, a robust response from Canada must cover a wide range of goods.”
They’re saying if the community wants to give input on this, you have until April 2nd. Meanwhile, also in Montreal, for the past month Jack Hartstein of Altra Foods, the largest importer of kosher food to this country, has been scrambling to bring in his American Passover shipments early, before the tariffs kick in. And as he told us a month ago on this show, before prices go up by 60%.
We caught up with Hartstein to find out what’s new, but also to hear his warning for what you should do the day after Passover ends.
Ellin Bessner: All right, Jack, a month ago we spoke with you before the tariffs were probably going to be put on. Then they were paused for 30 days. Now Canada’s retaliated on some products. What have you been able to do with Altra Foods in the meantime to get ready?
Jack Hartstein, Altra Foods: We brought in as much product as was available for us, as much as we could, and as many different products as possible we brought in, especially for Passover especially, which is a very big season to us, a very important time for the Canadian consumers. So we did as much as possible, bring in whatever we could before the tariffs hit us.
Ellin Bessner: All right, and what couldn’t you bring in?
Jack Hartstein: Whatever wasn’t ready.
Ellin Bessner: Give us a couple of examples.
Jack Hartstein: For the most part, we have everything in stock. We’ll be able to hold our prices for the Passover season.
Ellin Bessner: That’s really important. What does that look like? Because you were worried about 10% you could eat, but 25% ? No.
Jack Hartstein: Oh, we’re holding our prices as best as we can. Keep in mind, the exchange rate is costing us more than, probably, close to 15 points over how it did last year. So right there and then, we have an increase in our costs, but whatever. And there are also regular costs of goods because of inflation or whatever. And cost of raw materials. Some products went up in price. Look at the price of chocolate, cocoa on the international market. The commodity. We’re dealing with a lot of commodity sources. So chocolate more expensive as is, without 20% tariffs. And the exchange rate. So we’ve had increases from our suppliers, which in many cases we couldn’t hold the line on. But as best as we could, we held the line on pricing.
Ellin Bessner: When we last spoke, you were suggesting that if things went on like this, kosher food prices could go up between 50 and 60% this season for consumers. Are you still predicting that or maybe backing down a bit?
Jack Hartstein : No, no, no, no! That’s what I see on products coming from the U.S.. Of course, products that are coming from the rest of the world, from Israel, from Europe, and tuna coming from the Philippines, for the most part, on those products, we don’t. It is what it is. It’s the exchange rate. And if there’s increased shipping or increased cost a bit, but nothing out of the ordinary and unusual. It’s the U.S. products that we’re going to get hit on.
Ellin Bessner: Is there anything new that our audience, our kosher buyers are going to be noticing? Because things are starting to show up in the stores now. The big Matzah mountains are there in some of the big stores.
Jack Hartstein: Not really, no. I think for now it’s business as usual, and people should not be worried. They don’t have to really. Unless they’re buying stuff at really good prices, and on special, they can stock up for after Passover because what we do expect and are quite certain is going to happen after Passover, if everything remains as it is this morning, prices will increase. So whatever you can buy, whatever is shelf-stable products and cans and won’t collapse, I would advise you buy as much as you can and stock up, as much place you have in your cupboard, because prices will increase.
Ellin Bessner: And that’s what Jewish Canada sounds like for this episode of The CJN Daily, made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation. Our show is produced by Zachary Judah Kauffman, our executive producer is Michael Fraiman and the music is by Dov Beck Levine.
If you’ve noticed any price changes in your shopping trips for Pesach, let me know. What can you find in the stores? What can’t you find yet? What are you seeing? We’re at [email protected]. Thanks for listening.
Credits
- Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
- Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
- Music: Dov Beck-Levine
Support our show
- Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
- Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
- Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)
