A stroll through a grocery store can be a stressful experience these days, given the hike in the price of many foods.
And among the many items that have gotten more expensive in the past year, vegetable oil tops the list. Between August 2021 and August 2022, a three-litre container of vegetable oil increased from $8.45 to $12.01, a difference of $3.56, according to the most recent Statistics Canada retail data, compiled by CBC News.
Johnny Esposito, the owner of Esposito’s, a small grocery chain in Montreal, said he’s seen the price of oil climb dramatically — and yet shoppers still reluctantly add it to their carts.
“People complain. It’s so expensive, but you need it,” he said in an interview. “Oil is a staple product. It’s like having a car without gas.”
The increase in the price of vegetable oil is the most dramatic example of a more general rise in food prices. Overall, grocery prices increased at a pace of 11.4 per cent in September compared to a year ago, according to Wednesday’s inflation update from Statistics Canada.
That’s the fastest pace of increase in grocery bills since August 1981. It’s also the 10th straight month that food prices have outstripped the overall inflation rate, which dropped to 6.9 per cent in September, down from seven per cent in August.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. — the country’s largest grocery chain — came under fire earlier this week for its pledge to freeze the prices on its house brand, which includes more than 1,500 grocery items (including vegetable oil), until the end of January 2023.
The announcement was panned by critics as a public relations move amid soaring inflation.
A fixture, and a key ingredient
A multitude of factors has pushed up food prices. Statistics Canada attributed the rapid increase in grocery prices to weather conditions, higher prices for fertilizer and natural gas and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We’ve seen as a result of droughts around the world, but also the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, massive increase in the global price of grains,” said Simon Somogyi, a food professor at the University of Guelph.
Vegetable oil — a blanket term for oil derived from ingredients including palm, sunflowers, soybeans and canola — has been particularly hard hit, said Somogyi.
The effects of such an increase are wide-ranging. Vegetable oil is not only a fixture in home kitchens and restaurants, but also a key ingredient in many processed foods — driving up the price of those items as well.
Meat — including stewing beef, chicken and pork — have also substantially increased in price.
“The production of meat and the processing of meat requires a lot of human effort, movement of stock, fuel costs, labour costs,” Somogyi said.
“Animals, particularly the ones that we consume, have a fair diet of grains as well, and the grain prices have been spiking.”
Groceries are pictured in a Vaughn, Ont., supermarket earlier this year. Canada’s official inflation rate declined for the third month in a row in September, but food purchased at stores increased at a pace of 11.4 per cent. That’s the fastest pace of increase in grocery bills since August 1981. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
When it comes to vegetable oil, the increase in prices began two years ago and has climbed almost ever since.
An analysis by the International Food Policy Research Institute, a global research group, noted that supply tightened prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine due to drought in South America, a typhoon in Malaysia and labour shortages due to restrictions on mobility during the pandemic.
More recently, the supply of sunflower oil has declined because of the war. Ukraine is the top exporter of sunflower oil globally.
Esposito said the crates of sunflower oil that arrived at his two stores this week cost $28 more than those a week prior — working out to $7 more for a three-litre bottle.
But Somogyi said he expects the price of many staples, including vegetable oil, to stabilize in the coming months.
“We have seen over the last four-to-six months a lowering in vegetable oil prices, due to a slowing of the Ukraine conflict and better global supply, and those decreases typically take some time to be felt as lowered shelf prices, which should be imminent,” he said in a follow-up email.
WATCH | What shoppers have to say about food price increases:
Shoppers react to sky-high food prices
23 hours ago
Duration 1:42
Increases in the price of food are out of control, and on the streets of Toronto on Tuesday, Canadians told CBC News about what they are doing to deal with them.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
