TORONTO -- Canada’s food industry has been shaken by the global COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a significant increase in the food inflation rate across the country.
“Prices are going up. In fact, with latest report coming out of StatsCan this week, the general inflation rate is barely at zero, while the food inflation rate is almost at three per cent," Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, told CTV News Channel on Sunday.
COVID-19 precautions and other regulations introduced to safeguard Canadians from the spread of COVID-19 have impacted how every industry functions, including food production and grocery stores.
“Everything costs more to do in the food industry, from cleaning to producing to distribution,” Charlebois said. “That is catching up to us as consumers, unfortunately.”
It has affected different categories of food production at different times during the pandemic.
In late June, consumers were shocked by a surge in beef price, an increase grocers said was due to a COVID-19 outbreak at one of the country's largest meat packers, disrupting the supply chain.
According to Charlebois, no food category is immune to the impacts of the pandemic.
“At the very beginning, we saw meat prices go up, but then of course now, we’re starting to see food inflation affect other categories, like produce, for example, frozen foods are being affected, dairy is being affected,” he said.
Food imported from overseas during a global pandemic could also come with a significant price bump.
Carmine Caccioppoli, owner of a grocery store in Kitchener, Ont. that specializes in Italian-Canadian food, told CTV News Kitchener in early July that they’ve seen that price increase firsthand for international foods. A re-stock of Burrata cheese at their store had to come with a 25 per cent markup due to the rise in transportation costs and the low Canadian dollar.
“As a frontline retailer, we’re the ones who have to tell our customers prices went up,” he said in July. “It’s not always an easy thing to do, especially since everyone is suffering during the COVID-19.”
Another issue that has ripple effects for prices is the safety of workers -- vegetable and produce farms operating in Ontario have been under scrutiny for outbreaks at their facilities recently, and allegations from migrant workers of unsafe working conditions or controlling farm owners.
Charlebois says there are still some “good deals,” to be found on the shelves in Canadian stores, pointing out that chicken is cheaper than last year and that “pork is pretty stable.”
However, one way of procuring food that has seen a huge increase during the pandemic has a price problem, according to Charlebois: ordering groceries online.
He said those who are buying their groceries online are paying five to seven per cent more, on average. And that’s not only due to the delivery fee.
“You’re paying for the convenience,” he said. “So, there is the delivery fee, on average four dollars, but on top of that, it’s very rare that you can find deals online. Typically, they will charge you premium for everything you buy.”
Whether or not to go to the store in person isn’t a choice that everyone can make during a pandemic. If they are isolating because they’re sick, or are sticking indoors due to being immunocompromised or part of an at-risk group, online groceries may be the only option.
For those people, the service can be a lifesaver, pricey or not. And demand is only going up.
“You can be anywhere in the country and expect your food to be delivered within two hours, most places,” Charlebois said. “Because of e-commerce -- e-commerce is exploding -- we are expecting the volume of sales online to almost triple in 2020, compared to last year.”
If the trend continues in this direction, he says, it could have the unintended consequence of some grocery stores shutting down.
“That means that over 200 grocery stores could disappear as a result of the fact that we’re actually buying more online,” he said. “And some of us have to.”
