"Will unscrupulous food vendors use the Russian blockade to try to increase profits once again?" July 20th Canadian news & commentary
grocery gurus may be offended by that question, but how can we trust them again?
Had an interesting conversation with a listener about the cost of food these days.
You may recall that grocery prices were singled out as one of the main culprits in our battle with inflation.
Food prices are up 9% over this time last year, and that’s just the average increase, some products have seen significantly higher increases.
So, the listener asked if the recent decision by Russia to cancel the deal to allow Ukrainian grain to be shipped from Russian controlled ports is going to drive up food prices again.
It’s a good question; during the early days of the war, when the Russian blockade was in place, it created a huge supply problem for African nations and Europe and the price of many products, including bread shot up significantly.
The problem is, that if grocery companies raise prices on bread products, and blame the Russian blockade, how can we believe them?
We already know that, after extensive investigation by Consumer Protection staff, many of the grocery chains have admitted to price fixing of bakery products.
That was when Loblaw ratted out their co-conspirators in the fixing scandal and got a slap on the wrist for their grievous behavior.
So, will these unscrupulous food vendors use the Russian blockade as cover to try to increase profits once again?
The grocery gurus may be offended by that question, but once they admitted to cheating Canadian consumers, how can we trust them again?