Jameson Watermulder Sees More Chefs Turning Local with Rising Food Costs

Eight dollar cauliflowers and six dollar cucumbers is the harsh new grocery reality for Canadians, as the New Year brought no relief from the sinking Loonie and record oil price lows. Analysts expect the average Canadians grocery bill to increase by at least $345 dollars this year. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/13/canada-grocery-prices_n_8972976.html

Canada’s dependency on imported fruits and vegetables is causing prices to skyrocket in the grocery store, and there is no indication that the rising costs have reached their highest level. The low Loonie, coupled with the California drought, has created what many have called the ‘perfect storm’ for escalating fresh food prices.

“We’ve gone through this cycle before with the dollar,” said Jim McKeen, owner of McKeen Metro Glebe, an Ottawa based grocery store. “But there were issues on prices anyways because of supply in addition to this whole fiasco with the Canadian dollar. It’s a perfect storm.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/business/dealbook/in-canada-5-cauliflowers-cost-more-than-a-barrel-of-oil.html?ref=business&_r=1

While produce prices are set to rise another 4.5 percent across the board over this year, meat and dairy will also see a steep increase in price as well. Meat prices, which rose five percent in 2015, are expected to increase up to another 4.5 percent; fish and seafood could rise by up to three percent; and dairy, eggs and grains could see a two percent increase.

“Canada is the only industrialized country where you find the food inflation rate to be above 2.5 percent. That’s significant. Right now we are sitting at 4.1 percent,” Sylvain Charlebois of the University of Guelph Food Institute (http://english.pdf/) told the CBC. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/food-prices-2016-1.3358980

Charlebois also explained that Canada is more vulnerable to food price fluctuation and inflation because the country is so reliant on imported foods.  Products we could easily produce here, like bread and pasta, are imported now as Canada lacks the processing and manufacturing plants to turn the wheat of the prairies into bread.

Consumers aren’t the only ones taken aback by the rising cost of food. Restaurant owners, private chefs and nutritionists are also concerned. Jameson Watermulder, a chef living and working in Toronto, wonders when prices will stop rising and return to palatable levels. “It makes it challenging when you are trying to plan a menu,” explained Watermulder. “And it’s across the board, so we can’t mitigate the high cost of meat with more hearty vegetable dishes because vegetables are almost the same price.” https://about.me/jamesonwatermulder

While Jameson Watermulder and other chefs can get resourceful, there is something to be said for supplying what customers want. “We can get creative with root vegetables which can be sourced here and some other types of produce, but lettuce, spinach and salad ingredients in general are up and so is the price of meat and those are the high demand items.” https://twitter.com/ChefWatermulder

As Watermulder pointed out, the price fluctuation across the board has been a hard pill to swallow for restaurant owners and chefs who purchase produce and meat in bulk.

Produce supplier William Chou told the CBC many of the restaurants he services have already drastically reduced their profit margins and fixed prices on their menus. He worries that continued inflation will place an enormous amount of pressure on their budgets.

“Normally, we sell a case of broccoli to restaurants for a reasonable price, maybe $18 or $20,” Chou said. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/high-price-food-produce-distributor-1.3419355

Selling broccoli at that price point allowed Chou to mark-up the price by 20 percent so he could make a profit. Now, the price he has to pay for a single case has risen to $65, forcing Chou to keep his markups in the single digit realm, which affects his bottom line.  

Restaurants are presented with a unique challenge that grocery stores don’t face. A customer at a grocery store will pay for the food they need and want. At a restaurant, a high bill may result in the loss of a customer’s repeat business, so many restaurants are swallowing the price increase and not passing as much on to the customer.  

It is estimated that the average Canadian household will spend $2,416 dollars at restaurants in 2016, unfortunately that number may not purchase as many meals as it used to. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/food-prices-2016-1.3358980