After months of the round trip war, the impact of tariffs is beginning to reach our dining tables, according to experts who work in the Canadian food and edible industry.
Small grocery stores in particular have been paying more for the products that border their shelves, said Gary Sands, senior vice president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers. Although a series of products of products from the US are not rates, the fresh products that are subject to tax have seen the most immediate increase, Sands said, since it is perishable and a figures are made again through stores quickly.
And because many of the 6,900 independent supermarkets of Canada operate with thin gain margins of about two percent, much smaller than margins in many other sectors, those increases are transferring to consumers, Sands added.
“When you are in that type of margin, if they are delivering you … food manufacturers, you know, four or five, six, sometimes two digits [per cent] It increases, is happening to the consumer and there is no way to avoid that, “Sands said.
As part of Canada’s response to US tariffs, the federal government imposed 25 percent tariffs on US products worth $ 30 billion on March 4. Several food products are part of that list of affected goods, including orange juice, some berries, nuts, ketchup, shrimp and more. These counter-tarifas are beginning to appear in the supply chain.
In addition to that, consumer price index data also indicates a slight increase in food prices. In February, the price of food acquired in stores was above 2.8 percent As of February 2024. In March, the price increase year after year had increased 3.2 percent.
Stuart Smyth, a professor of agricultural economy and resources at Saskatchewan University, said tariffs probably had an impact on that.
“We have had this threat of tariffs really since the beginning of February,” said Smyth. “It is on and is off and is on and is off, so I think that uncertainty is having a factor in the price of many goods.”
The increase in prices in the articles impacted by the rate is also becoming visible on the shelves of the groceries. In the case of orange juice, for example, US products often have a higher price than the facts in other places.
A comparison of orange juices without pulp listed on the Loblaws website showed significant price differences between the products marked “prepared in Canada” and those of the United States labeled as affected by tariffs.
The springless orange juice of the president’s brand and an equivalent of simply orange, both identified as prepared in Canada, had a price of $ 5 ($ 0.32 per 100 ml) and $ 7.69 ($ 0.50 percent) respectively. Meanwhile, orangeless orange juice made in the US.
It was a similar story in Metro, which has mainly stores located in Ontario and Quebec. A 2.5 -liter jug of irresistible orange juice without pulp was listed online for $ 6.99 ($ 0.28 per 100 ml) while a tropic orange jug of similar size was List at $ 13.99 ($ 0.53 percent).
Canadian prepared foods were not saved
In addition to US goods in Canadian stores that simply rise in price, tariffs are also beginning to increase costs for Canadian food producers, said Michael Graydon, CEO of the Food, Health and Consumer Organization of Canada.
For example, a Canadian producer of canned tomatoes obtained by his tomatoes from the United States would have seen a rate on the product since the beginning of March.
Coffee, chocolate and nuts, the products that are often used in food production in Canada, are also among articles that are now subject to the surge, said Graydon.
All this increases costs for Canadian food producers. At the moment, Graydon said, the producers that he heard mostly absorb that increase, preferring to wait and see if the situation of the turbulent rate changes again before increasing their prices.
I could hit the hardest independent supermarkets
Meanwhile, the Canadian Buy movement has exercised an additional pressure layer on smaller retailers that are doing everything possible to change their supply chains, Sands said.
“Consumers are being very vocal about this, they want and expect to see the greatest number of Canadian products … as they can on their shelves,” said Sands. “I’ve been with this association 25 years, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Sands said.
A Leger survey published this week found that 81 percent of Canadians surveyed between February 7 and 10 said they are “significantly” that the purchases of Canadian products increase.
They are doing everything possible to buy products from places in South America instead of the United States, but Sands says that such supplier exchanges are difficult to do for small businesses.
Michael Von Massow agrees.
Now that there are tariffs on oranges, for example, he says that supermarkets are probably looking for cheaper cultivated in Türkiye or South Africa instead of those of the United States. Who buys most oranges would be the first in row to get the sale, which means that small supermarkets that are buying less can fight to change their supply chains.
Sands added that some supermarkets that stored American products now find it difficult to sell. This puts them in a difficult place when they cannot recover the cost of those goods, and add another layer of stress.
Impact that just begins to materialize
Despite the impacts seen by supermarkets and the shelves so far, the impact of tariffs has not yet materialized completely. And some of the increases were not due to tariffs.
When suppliers want to increase prices, Graydon says that most retailers make them request that change and give reasons why they believe the increase is justified. He says that this process takes six to 12 weeks, which means that some increases have not yet begun to appear.
Have you advanced the US rates. Have you made you want to buy more products cultivated in Canadian and Canadians? Yqr Couponbae has it covered with tips and tricks on how to do exactly that, without spending a lot of money.
On the other hand, the variety in groceries is helping Canadians avoid high -price tariff items, according to Von Massow. Unless consumers insist on buying an American brand as Tropicana, for example, he said that he can probably avoid impact by buying a Canadian alternative.
Von Massow added that the impact of tariffs on food is also limited, so the federal government chose to include, and exclude, from that list of products contrary to prayer.
The green leaves, which Canada purchase of the United States in large quantities at this time of year, are not collected, he said.
“I think the government was quite selective in what products were put to maximize pressure on the US. And minimize pressure on Canadian consumers, at least in the first round,” said Von Massow.
As the weather is heated and Canada’s growth season is launched, Von Massow said it will be easier to find local products that avoid both tariffs and increases related to the supply chain.
