Booze, candy canes among items in short supply across Canada
Posted December 25, 2021 2:10 pm.
Last Updated December 26, 2021 1:23 pm.
The ongoing supply chain issues we’ve been telling you about over the past few months are affecting your buying abilities of some yummy holiday treats. The two biggest ones you may notice are the lack of wine and candy canes right now.
There are a couple of reasons for that, according to Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He says getting the items you want or may need is being partly hindered by the pandemic and by a lack of resources at some companies to make and manufacture things, like candy canes.
“Supply chains are running very slowly due to the fact you need labour, and either a lot of people are getting sick or they were exposed to someone who got sick and so that effects logistics on land [and] on water. Companies are facing new protocols, changing protocols as they actually move around the world as a result of Omicron and so that’s why things are not only slower but they’re more expensive as well.”
Moving goods around the world is just one issue, but Charlebois points out there’s another problem.
“Companies are desperate to get ingredients to make, candy canes, for example. In the case of candy canes, it’s sugar. Sugar comes from overseas. To get sugar is much more challenging than six months ago, and not only that, it’s more expensive. With wine, there’s been some issue with grapes as a result of heatdomes and things like that, so production has been impacted in some areas of the world as a result of climate change. When you look at the ensemble of issues related to food shortages, it boils down to the same things from farm to plate.”
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Charlebois says, unfortunately, the supply chain issues are expected to trickle into 2022.
“For at least six months probably. But the food industry is quite resilient. Unfortunately, it got accustomed to unpredictability and that’s what’s going on over the last 22 months or so. Companies are accustomed to dealing with unpredictable market conditions so now I think we’re better tooled to deal with some issues, but as consumers don’t expect perfection. You are going to see holes, here and there, in stores, whether it’s at the liquor store, in a grocery store, at a convenience store. You should expect to see some holes on shelves and if you do, just shift your expectations and buy something else.”
When it comes to shortages, he says produce can be hit and miss across the country.
“The situation in BC is a bit different, I would say. [BC] procures a lot of produce from California. The production in California wasn’t great, but they will continue to grow products until probably April for Canada and so far, things are good and the Canadian dollar is holding on as well, so we don’t expect British Columbians to be impacted by what’s going in California, but with a strong dollar you can go elsewhere too, you can go to Mexico, you can go to South America as well. We’re not too concerned about produce to be honest.”
Charlebois says the biggest concern, when it comes to food affordability, is dairy with prices set to skyrocket next year.
“We’re not going to run out of dairy,” he explains. “Dairy farmers will get 8.4 per cent more for their milk. That is a record increase in 50 years. So obviously, cheese, yogurt, anything with milk in it will become way more expensive by probably mid-February or early March.”
Canadians, he points out, already pay way more for butter — in fact, it’s nearly double the price but the quality is better.
