On the third day of SIAL Canada 2025, as part of the Marketing Track, Stephane Crevier, VP Brand Strategy & Growth, Pigeon and Francis Parisien, SVP sales SMB Canada NielsenIQ gave a presentation on the cultural specificities of the food market in Quebec entitled “Unlocking Canada’s Food Markets: What Sets Quebec Apart.”

Ontario and Quebec make up 61% of the Canadian market, while 1 in 4 Canadians live in Quebec, meaning that Quebec counts for 24.4% of Canadian households. One of the first topics Crevier and Parisien addressed was the place of pleasure in food consumption, which was significantly higher in Quebec. Stephane Crevier cited celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain who famously said that “For Quebecers, pleasure is a serious thing.” He went on to highlight that consumers concerned with pleasure are more spontaneous and generally willing to spend more that those that are health-focused. A study from Pigeon showed that for 76% of Quebecers happiness is important, compared to 24% of the rest of Canadians (who were more concerned with responsibility).

Crevier and Parisien discussed how multiculturalism is demographically different in Quebec than the rest of Canada, with fewer immigrants overall and from different countries. While in Toronto or Vancouver there are a lot of Chinese and Filipino immigrants, in Quebec there are more people coming from French-speaking nations such as Haiti and countries in the Maghreb. This has a big impact on the foods and products available, with an under-development of Chinese food in Quebec for example. 78% of Quebecers say they mainly speak French at home, and 47% say that they can only speak French, which is an important factor when it comes to labeling and branding products.

The main takeaways from the presentation were that Quebec has a unique culture and consumption style with a strong preference for adapted marketing and local products. Brands looking to break into the market cannot just copy-paste a general Canadian branding strategy, they need to take into account the language, preferences and cultural context of this unique province.