Grocery supply chain will directly impact availability and price of food in coming months: food professor

Getting products to market is a global effort, but with the COVID-19 pandemic and seasonal factors, food delivery in the Maritimes is experiencing some delays.

Professor Sylvain Charlebois conducts research in the area of food distribution. He has been closely watching the grocery supply chain in the Maritimes.

“I have seen some pictures from Halifax and they are not pretty,” said Charlebois.

According to Charlebois, food vendors are now sending cautionary letters to all major grocery stores.

“Like Loblaws and Sobeys, telling them that they won't be able to fulfill all orders," he said.

Charlebois expects a direct impact on the availability and price of food, especially produce, over the next three months.

“They are actually discouraging any promotions,” said Charlebois.

Several factors continue to cause breaks in the supply chain, including the requirement that all truckers entering Canada from the United States show proof of vaccination.

Jim Cormier, from the Retail Council of Canada, says the government was asked to delay the vaccine mandate.

“One thing that we asked, along with other business associations across the country, was a longer runway from saying when this was going to happen until when it is enforced, to allow us to get to through some of these winter months,” said Cormier.

Blasts of winter weather have also disrupted deliveries.

“That's one that happens with or without a pandemic,” said Cormier.

In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for Loblaws said the company has faced some delays, but “overall, our stores in Nova Scotia are managing inventory quite effectively. We do not have any substantive shortages or inventory issues."

As for the impact on local restaurants, the manager of Durty Nelly’s, a Halifax pub, says their business is getting enough of what it needs and they will make do with what they can get.

“It's a random issue of different stuff week on week,” says Eugene McCabe.

On the other hand, the owner of The Wooden Monkey, a restaurant with locations in Halifax and Dartmouth, says her reliance on local products has been a difference maker so far.

On top of everything else, Charlebois is closely examining grocery store staff shortages caused by the Omicron variant.

“I am actually expecting some stores in the Atlantic region to close temporarily,” said Charlebois.

A possible move that would further impact the availability and price of food.