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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
What Michael Cohen said on the stand in Trump hush money case
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Next 48 hours will be 'extremely challenging' for B.C. wildfire crews near Fort Nelson: officials
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.
Southern Ont. man charged with attempted murder in Timmins shooting
One of two men wanted for attempted murder in Timmins has been arrested, while a warrant has been issued for a second suspect, who fled police on foot.