Supply chain crunch, higher prices affecting Winnipeg specialty grocery stores

Chickpeas, flour and dairy products are staples at Blady Middle Eastern, but they are going up in price for grocery shoppers.

The Winnipeg specialty store is far from the only grocery store in the province dealing with a surge in prices stemming from a food supply shortage in Canada, and the reasons for this are more complicated than one might think.

The hardest part about price increases is relaying that information to consumers, says Issa Qandeel, owner of the Blady market.

He acknowledges that about 70 to 80 per cent of his customers understand the store is caught between a rock and a hard place. Grocery stores simply have to bump up prices to reflect the increased costs of raw materials and shipping costs that are passed on to them from distributors and shipping organizations.

"Shipping internationally has gone up all over the world, not just in Canada. The farther you go away from Canada, the more expensive you pay for shipping," Qandeel said Wednesday.

His store brings in a bevy of products from the Middle East and surrounding areas, all of which are obtained through suppliers and distributors.

Qandeel said he started to notice price increases on some products last June, but notes there has been a noticeable increase in costs this month.

"We used to, for example, add five to seven per cent on the product itself for shipping but right now we have to add around 10 to 12 per cent on the shipping costs on each product that we get from Canada — not internationally," Qandeel said.

Certain products have seen a bigger increase than others, with charcoal from Indonesia and Vietnam jumping in cost by 30 to 40 percent.

Since opening the market in October 2018, Qandeel says flour, chickpeas and dairy products have also gone up.

"If it's not double, then at least 50 per cent [more] than what we used to buy it for," Qandeel said.

He added that the Canadian Dairy Commission has raised prices by about 12 per cent, while flour has almost doubled in price since the store opened. Chickpea prices have only recently gone up.

"We can't basically just stop an item because the price has increased on this item. We can still bring it but we have to notify people before that this item is going to be a little higher in price," Qandeel said.

There are some items Qandeel is temporarily not bringing in due to increased costs: rumi cheese from Egypt and Indomie noodles from Indonesia. The former has seen a jump of approximately 75 per cent in cost, says Qandeel.