Shippers from here are packed for foreign purposes by the IGA

Quebec truckers who have been transporting fruits and vegetables for IGA for decades say they have been torn by companies outside of Quebec in recent months.

“We have been dedicated to body and soul for 35 years. All of our employees are cubes. It is very difficult for me to understand that Sobies is leaving us for Antarians and Americans,” lamented Jean-Claude Fortin, owner of JE Fortin.

In recent months, Quebec shipping companies that shipped Quebec fruits and vegetables to the United States and subsequently brought American products here for Sobies say they were “packed” by the giant.

“Americans like JB Hunt Logistics and companies operating in Ontario like The Herman Group have won contracts,” said Jean-Claude Fortin, president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CCA).

As a result, our grapes, plums, peaches, bananas, pineapples and apples are increasingly being procured by shipping companies outside Quebec.

“It rhymes with losses of nearly two million dollars,” Jean-Claude Fortin goes on to say with rage.

From heroes to zeros

Like him, the big bosses also denied it Journal Yesterday, in an anonymous state, the online submission system was bothering them.

“They make their living with Quebecars and they encourage less and less Quebecars,” sighed one of them, preferring to keep his name silent so as not to humiliate Sobies.

“During the epidemic, we were heroes, now we have fallen to zero,” said another, agreeing to speak on the same terms.

“We’m losing millions of dollars. We’ll get rid of people and stay close,” he said emotionally.

In recent years, Sobies has already transferred a major transportation contract from Quebec Group Robert to the New Brunswick company Day & Ross, a branch of the Toronto giant McCain.

Yesterday, IGA’s parent company, Sobies, confirmed that there had been “changes” in the organization with the carrier.

“Most of the people for the fruits and vegetables phase came from Maritimes from Canada and Ontario,” said spokeswoman Anne-Halein Lavoy.

“For the grocery, we will proceed in the same way through the national offering, and most of the selected carriers came from Quebec,” she said.

Sobies defends himself

When asked if the IGA was releasing truckers from here, on the contrary, she replied that she was well settled in the province.

“Not at all. At the grocery store, they were mostly picky, explained Anne-Helene Lavoy. I have my own home drivers.”

“In the era of Quebec products, it’s all local. All of these are Quebec carriers working here,” she concluded.

– Andrea Valeria, with Jean-Michel Genoese Gagnan and Sylvain Laroke

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