There’s a quiet kind of irony in standing in a New Brunswick grocery store, picking up a bag of imported potatoes, and walking right past a wall of products grown, brewed, smoked, or stitched within an hour’s drive of your house. New Brunswick has a long history of making things well — from world-famous food brands to small-batch goods you’ll only find here. Buying local keeps more of every dollar circulating in your own community, supports the farmers and makers who live down the road, and usually means a fresher, better product anyway.
Here are ten things worth seeking out before you reach for the imported version.
1. McCain Potatoes and Fries
It’s easy to forget that the company behind the fries in half the world’s freezers started in Florenceville-Bristol, in the Upper St. John River Valley — a region so central to potato farming it’s nicknamed the French Fry Capital of the World. The cool climate and rich river-valley soil here are genuinely suited to growing potatoes, which is part of why the industry took root in the first place. Buying the New Brunswick product isn’t a downgrade for the sake of local pride — it’s buying the original.
2. Maple Syrup (Wabanaki Maple, Briggs Maples, and others)
New Brunswick’s maple sector doesn’t get the same spotlight as Quebec’s, but the syrup is just as good, and some of it is doing genuinely interesting things. Wabanaki Maple, based in Tobique Narrows, is a women- and Indigenous-owned producer known for aging maple syrup in bourbon, whiskey, and oak barrels for unconventional flavour. Smaller producers like Briggs Maples in Riverview sell syrup and maple butter directly. Skip the imported syrup blends and grab a bottle that came out of an actual New Brunswick sugar bush.
3. King Cole Tea
Tea isn’t the first thing people associate with New Brunswick, but King Cole Tea has been blended here for generations and is, in fact, an authentic homegrown brand rather than an imported product wearing a friendly name. If tea is already in your cart, this is one of the easiest swaps on the list.
4. Crosby’s Molasses
If you bake, you’ve probably used Crosby’s without thinking twice about where it’s from — it’s another genuinely New Brunswick–made product, not an import. Next time the recipe calls for molasses, you don’t have to look any further than the shelf you’re already standing in front of.
5. Ganong Chocolate
Ganong, based in St. Stephen, has been making chocolate in New Brunswick for well over a century and is credited with inventing the chocolate bar as we know it. There’s no real reason to bring in a foreign chocolate brand when a province-made one with this much pedigree is sitting in the same aisle.
6. Beausoleil Oysters
For shellfish, New Brunswick’s Acadian coast does not need help from anywhere else. Beausoleil oysters, cultivated in the warm, shallow waters of the Northumberland Strait, are well-regarded enough to show up on menus far outside the province — so there’s little reason to bring in imported oysters when this is what’s already growing nearby.
7. Barbours Spices and Seasonings
Spices feel like the kind of thing that has to come from somewhere else, but Barbours has been blending and packaging spices in Saint John for generations. It’s a low-effort swap: the next time a recipe calls for a seasoning blend, check the label before assuming it has to be imported.
8. Acadian Sturgeon and Caviar
This one tends to surprise people — New Brunswick produces sturgeon and caviar, sustainably raised along the Acadian coast, putting it in a category most shoppers assume is exclusively European. If you’re buying caviar at all, it’s worth knowing there’s a domestic option.
9. Craft Beer, Cider, and Wine from NB Microbreweries and Wineries
Across the province, small breweries, cideries, and wineries are working with whatever the local terroir gives them — and increasingly, that’s worth seeking out instead of grabbing an imported case at the liquor store. This is one of the easier categories to explore, since most regions of the province have at least one local producer pouring something distinctive.
10. Wild Blueberries (and Blueberry Products)
Wild blueberries are one of Atlantic Canada’s signature crops, grown across the northern and eastern parts of the province and harvested each summer. They show up fresh at farmers’ markets, but also turned into jams, syrups, and preserves — all good reasons to skip the imported berries and preserves and buy what’s actually in season nearby.
Why It’s Worth the Extra Look
None of this requires becoming a full-time local-sourcing detective. New Brunswick has a few simple labelling systems — the Excellence NB and Savour NB marks, for instance — designed specifically to make NB-made products easy to spot on a shelf. Farmers’ markets like the Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market, the Dieppe Market, and the Kingston Farmers Market are also a reliable shortcut, since almost everything sold there is local by definition.
The honest case for buying local isn’t really about guilt over imports — it’s that the products are often genuinely good, the dollars stay closer to home, and in a surprising number of categories, New Brunswick was making the “original” version long before anyone thought to import an alternative.
