For 31 years, Alden Foods has built relationships with suppliers who share our refusal to compromise. These aren’t vendor transactions—they’re partnerships with operations that have spent decades, sometimes generations, earning their reputations. The Canadian seafood we carry comes from waters managed for sustainability and harvesters who understand that quality can’t be rushed. These are the people who make our standard possible.

Purvis Fisheries

Lake Huron, Ontario | Established 1882

Some fishing operations measure their history in decades. Purvis Fisheries measures theirs in centuries.

For over 140 years, the Purvis family has worked the same waters—Lake Huron’s cold, clean depths where whitefish thrive in conditions that can’t be replicated, only respected. What started in 1882 as a small-scale Great Lakes fishery has become one of the most trusted names in freshwater fish, not because they expanded aggressively, but because they refused to compromise.

Lake Huron whitefish is different. The lake’s cold temperatures and pristine water produce fish with firm, sweet flesh and a delicate flavour that chefs recognize immediately. It’s not a product you can source from just anywhere. It requires specific geography, specific conditions, and suppliers who understand that quality isn’t negotiable.

Purvis operates with the kind of consistency that only comes from generational knowledge. The same families who fished these waters in the 1800s are still fishing them today, passing down not just techniques, but an understanding of sustainable harvest that predates government regulation. They knew long before quotas existed that you protect what sustains you.

For Alden Foods, the relationship with Purvis isn’t transactional—it’s foundational. When we say our products are traceable, we mean we can tell you which lake, which fishery, which boat. When we say sustainable, we mean practices refined over more than a century, not adopted to meet a marketing trend.

Purvis operates within the natural limits of the fishery. Their volume is constrained by season, by the lake’s capacity to regenerate, by a commitment to harvest practices that have sustained them for over a century. That limitation isn’t a business strategy—it’s a principle. They don’t chase growth that compromises quality.

Working with Purvis means accepting that some weeks, supply is constrained. It means planning menus around seasonality, not demanding year-round availability of something that doesn’t exist year-round. It means trusting that when the fish arrives, it’s worth the limitations.

That’s the trade-off. And for 31 years, Alden Foods has considered it worth making.

Because over 140 years of knowledge, housed in one family operation on one Great Lake, is irreplaceable. And the whitefish that comes from those cold, clean waters tastes like it.

What Purvis Supplies:

Lake Huron Whitefish – Lake Trout – Herring
Fresh – Frozen – Smoked
Seasonal availability
Limited volume, premium quality
Full traceability from lake to kitchen

Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (FFMC)

Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories | Established 1969

Most Crown Corporations are founded to regulate. FFMC exists to sustain.

Established in 1969 as a federal Crown Corporation, the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation was built with a specific mandate: support Canada’s inland fisheries by creating stable markets for harvesters operating in some of the country’s most remote regions. Over 50 years later, that mandate hasn’t changed. But the institution is evolving.

FFMC serves close to 1,600 commercial harvesters across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. Eighty percent of those harvesters are First Nations or Métis fishers working lakes that have sustained their communities for generations. In many of these remote northern communities, commercial fishing isn’t just an industry—it’s one of the few viable economic opportunities available. It’s a connection to traditional ways of life. It’s a livelihood that allows families to stay in the places they’ve always called home.

The fish that come from these northern lakes—walleye, whitefish, lake trout, northern pike—are harvested under strict quotas designed to protect populations long-term. FFMC doesn’t just buy fish. They manage the entire supply chain, from remote collection points accessible only by winter ice roads, to processing facilities, to market distribution. For harvesters in communities hours from the nearest town, that infrastructure is the difference between a functioning fishery and economic collapse.

This is sustainability in its most complete form. Not just environmental quotas, but economic and cultural sustainability for the people whose lives depend on these fisheries remaining viable.

For Alden Foods, sourcing through FFMC means access to products most distributors will never carry—not because of price, but because of the complexity required to maintain these supply chains. It means supporting fisheries that operate with full traceability, government oversight, and a mandate that prioritizes harvester livelihoods alongside fish populations.

It also means accepting that some products are seasonal, some harvests are weather-dependent, and some deliveries are subject to conditions beyond anyone’s control. Remote northern fisheries don’t operate on the same timelines as southern industrial operations. They operate according to ice formation, seasonal migration, and the realities of communities where the nearest paved road might be 200 kilometres away.

FFMC makes that possible. They bridge the gap between Canada’s most remote fisheries and the markets that value what those fisheries produce.

For over 31 years, Alden Foods has worked with FFMC because we understand what that bridge represents: access to fisheries managed with integrity, harvesters supported with stability, and products that carry the weight of something larger than transaction.

The fish speaks for itself. But the story behind it—the communities, the harvesters, the lakes that have sustained generations—that’s what makes it irreplaceable.

What FFMC Supplies:

Walleye (wild-caught)
Lake Whitefish
Lake Trout
Northern Pike
Yellow Perch
Dore
Freshwater Caviar (whitefish, herring, pike)
Full traceability under government-regulated quotas
Seasonal availability based on sustainable harvest limits