Quebec study shows 'local' label works

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Consumers buy into local food labels, at least in Quebec, according to a doctoral student in marketing at Sherbrooke University.

Francine Rodier found a 2.8 per cent increase in sales across 16 food items in four grocery stores when they carried a "Product of Quebec" label. It doesn't sound like much, but the provincial government, which has put $14 million into a campaign to buy more home-grown food, says that, if every Quebecer ate just $30 worth extra of provincially produced food, it would generate $1 billion in sales and create 1,800 jobs.

If you divide $14 million by 1,800, that is $7,777 per job. That's better than governments did to preserve jobs at General Motors Canada, isn't it?