GREEN BAY (NBC26) — A Green Bay pickle plant that packages a popular Canadian brand is feeling the squeeze from ongoing trade tensions between the United States and Canada.
Step inside the pickle plant with Green Bay neighborhood reporter Pari Apostolakos in the video below:
TreeHouse Foods, which produces Bick's Pickles at its west side facility, has seen sales drop 24% over the past year after Canada imposed a 25% tariff on $30 billion in U.S. imports, including pickles.
"That means we're buying fewer cucumbers from Canadian farmers, fewer lids from a Canadian manufacturer," said Howard Karesh, TreeHouse Foods Chief Communications Officer.
The tariff, implemented in March, has made it difficult for Canadian stores to afford or stock the popular pickle brand, directly impacting production at the Green Bay facility.
The plant on School Place has been packaging pickles since Abraham Lincoln was in office and processes about 20 million pounds of pickles monthly during the summer, also known as the "green season."
"This is all fresh-packed, so it's off the field in a jar within a day or two," said Dan Wesenick, TreeHouse Foods Plant Manager, while giving NBC 26 a tour of the facility.
The trade dispute has forced the plant to run fewer production lines, resulting in reduced hours for workers.
"We have other customers as well, so we have enough to keep us busy in the summer," Wesenick said. "But, Bick's definitely has an impact. It's one of our main brands."
When asked about potential long-term consequences, Wesenick expressed concern.
"We're always concerned about reduced volume, because that could result in layoffs or reduced headcount here at the site," he said."
The facility employs approximately 400 people during the summer months and about 200 in the winter.
Despite these challenges, TreeHouse Foods plans to bring two more production lines for over gallons of large buckets of pickles sold to restaurants and other food service businesses from their Chicago plant to the Green Bay location, potentially making the place busier.
Canada's Department of Finance has stated that the counter tariffs will remain in place as long as U.S. tariffs continue. Meanwhile, TreeHouse Foods is petitioning the Canadian government to exempt Bick's Pickles from the tariff. Karesh said the company has no plans to relocate production to Canada.
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