supply chain

Thursday September 29, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 29, 2022

Butter Prices Continue to Soar Due to Ongoing Supply Shortage

December 8, 2016

Butter is our lifeblood, our saving grace. When all else fails, butter is there for us to spread on toast, toss into mashed potatoes, shower on our movie popcorn, or use to whip up a cake. But this essential ingredient is starting to cost a pretty penny, and right before its biggest time to shine, the holiday baking season.

Butter is currently the most expensive it’s been since 2017, with the price of the savory spread up 24.6% over the 12 months ending in August, according to the Wall Street Journal. Furthermore, the US currently has the lowest amount of butter in storage facilities within that same five-year period, so there’s not a solid reserve to rely on.

February 2, 2018

There are several reasons for the price increase, including rising inflation costs. To make matters worse, due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, labor shortages continue to slow things down at processing facilities across the country while the demand for butter continues to outpace supply in the Midwest, for example, according to the latest USDA dairy market report. 

The report also reveals that butter makers on the West Coast are running reduced production schedules. In the Northeast, retail butter demand is just picking up, yet tight inventories are causing some producers to regulate their supply across existing orders.

In short, you might want to reconsider before making that butter board.  (Thrillist) 

 

Wednesday January 26, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 26, 2022

Organizer behind anti-vaccine mandate convoy says it won’t tolerate extremists as online rhetoric heats up

A key player behind the convoy travelling to Ottawa to protest a vaccine mandate for truckers is distancing her movement from the increasingly extremist rhetoric online being associated with the protest and asking members of the convoy to report any extreme behaviour to police.

February 21, 2019

Addressing her Facebook followers in a video posted on the Freedom Convoy 2022 Facebook page, Tamara Lich said the convoy is expected to arrive at Parliament Hill in Ottawa over the weekend to protest what she calls infringements of personal liberty caused by public health orders.

“If you see participants along the way that are misbehaving, acting aggressively in any way or inciting any type of violence or hatred, please take down the truck number and their licence plate number so that we can forward that to the police,” she said.

Since the convoy of trucks and other vehicles left B.C. and began snaking its way to Ottawa, extremists and fringe groups have taken to social media to encourage their followers to descend on the capital when the convoy arrives, calling on them to destroy property and threaten elected officials.

Friday December 24, 2021

Illustration by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 24, 2021 (Two articles follow when clicking on the date above)

The pandemic’s terrible twos — lingering tantrums plague us

A pandemic is a hard, peculiar shape to wrap your head around, to fit your life, thinking, lungs and feelings around, to take sides about.

I’ll get to polarization and side-taking, in a bit. It’s true, this pandemic is not a world war, not global famine, but it is something. It has a shape. An ink blot maybe? Many things to many people? The shape of things to come?

Not a shape perhaps but more like a sensation, like walking through spider webs. It feels bad, you weren’t expecting it and, I mean, brrr, it’s spider webs, but then nothing bad happens to YOU and you feel silly because … I mean, like, it’s spider webs; gossamer. Chances would be slim that you’d be walking into actual spiders and even if you were, chances would be slimmer that they’d be black widows. Landmines don’t come in gossamer, do they?

You might feel that way sometimes.

Friday December 10, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 10, 2021

We’ll all be paying a lot more for food next year, says Canada’s Food Price Report

June 22, 2021

Sky-high food prices were one of many negative impacts that Canadians felt during the pandemic-plagued year of 2021. And a new report suggests that problem is only going to get worse next year.

Canada’s Food Price Report, released today, is an annual report published by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph that’s the most comprehensive set of data currently available about a subject that all Canadians are impacted by: food.

As with everything else, supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on food prices and availability. Weather events such as the heat dome also didn’t help put food on the table.

“The meat counter was a big deal this year,” said Sylvain Charlebois, the chief researcher on the report and a professor studying food distribution and security at Dalhousie University in Halifax. 

December 8, 2016

“It really pushed food inflation much higher.”

This time last year, the report was forecasting an increase of between three and five per cent for food prices, with a theoretical family of four consisting of one man, one woman, one boy, and one girl, on track to pay about $13,907 to feed themselves in 2021. 

As it turns out, they were only over by $106. The report tabulates that theoretical family ended up spending $13,801 to feed themselves this year.

In the coming year, Charlebois says food price inflation is on track to be higher with a likely increase of between five and seven per cent — or an extra $966 a year for the typical family grocery bill.

“It’s the highest increase that we’re predicting in 12 years, both in terms of dollars and percentage,” Charlebois said. “It’s not going to be easy.”

As usual, different types of food are expected to go up in price at different rates, with dairy and baked goods expected to be comparatively much more pricey, while past culprits like meat and seafood will look comparatively flat. (CBC) 

 

Saturday December 4, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 4, 2021

Welcome to the new tradition of Christmas tree shortages

With reports of tree shortages across Canada this year, the Christmas tree industry is warning that low inventory could become an issue every holiday season.

December 9, 2017

“It’s not gonna get easier for the foreseeable future,” said Shirley Brennan, the executive director of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association, which represents hundreds of tree farmers across the country.

Sales of Canadian Christmas trees have been growing by about 15 per cent a year since 2015, said Brennan.

And unless demand falls off, a Christmas tree shortage is likely to continue because fewer trees are being planted and climate change is affecting their growth and survival.

“I can see it being ongoing,” said Alison McCrindle, co-owner of Chickadee Christmas Trees in Puslinch, Ont.

Tree sellers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. have all told CBC News about inventory issues they’re facing this year.

January 8, 2008

An anxious Nevesha Persad Maharaj was at Chickadee for the farm’s opening day on Nov. 26 — much earlier than her family had ever shopped for a tree.

“We came out a couple of weeks earlier and, even for us, we were thinking it was a little bit late,” she said. 

One possibly worrisome sign for the future: The current shortage forced Ikea Canada to abandon its practice of selling live trees this year, because the retailer said it was “unable to secure the necessary local supply.”

Canada exports about 49 per cent of the Christmas trees grown here — and most of the trees that end up in Canadian homes are homegrown, said Brennan. Quebec grows the most Christmas trees in the country by far, followed by Nova Scotia, Ontario and New Brunswick.

December 8, 2018

The problem is that over time, the amount of land dedicated to Christmas tree production has been shrinking.

In 2011, there were just under 2,400 Christmas tree farms in Canada, with about 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) of land under cultivation, according to Statistics Canada data. By 2016, the number of farms totalled just under 1,900, with around 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) of land under cultivation.

One reason why there’s less land being used to grow Christmas trees is because a number of tree farms are family businesses, said Brennan, and the average grower is between 70 and 75. 

Growing trees isn’t easy and when a farmer’s children aren’t interested in taking over, the land may be turned to other uses or not farmed at all, she said. (CBC)