A Windsor-based rice mill says it will need to revaluate its operations as it faces the possibility of being hit with tariffs on both sides of the border.
Dainty Foods, located at 725 Broadway Street near Ojibway, imports rice into the country as Canada's only rice mill.
Speaking on AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, Chief Executive James Maitland says because Canada does not grow rice, they made the conscious decision to source their rice from the United States.
"They have higher pesticide standards, higher aflatoxin standards, so, versus sourcing from other parts of the world, we're bringing the best quality of rice into Canada," he said.
Maitland says they face a second tariff from U.S. President Donald Trump, that's already been imposed by the Canadian government on the rice they import.
"We're working with the government to try and prove we deserve an exception, but nothing's guaranteed until it's in writing, and our government has a lot on the plate and we have no timeline to when we could expect a decision on relief," he said.
Maitland says they recently made a $20-million investment to help with growth of their business.
He says 60 to 75 per cent of their business ends up back in the U.S., and potentially faces 50 per cent tariffs.
"We were looking to triple or quadruple our business over the next five years, with these tariffs coming in, it's a very different story for us," Maitland said. "We'll have to do some form of restructuring within our business where we focus on just certain markets, because other businesses for us would go away, i.e., some of the products we ship into U.S., nobody could absorb a 50 per cent tariff."
The company started as Mount Royal Rice Mills in 1882 in Montreal.
In 1967, they moved the rice mill to Windsor to be closer to U.S. suppliers.