Canadians Panic As Food Prices Soar On Collapsing Currency
It was just yesterday when we documented the continuing slide in the loonie, which is suffering mightily in the face of oil’s inexorable decline.
As regular readers are no doubt acutely aware, Canada is struggling through a dramatic economic adjustment, especially in Alberta, the heart of the country’s oil patch. Amid the ongoing crude carnage the province has seen soaring property crime, rising food bank usage and, sadly, elevated suicide rates, as Albertans struggle to comprehend how things up north could have gone south (so to speak) so quickly.
The plunging loonie “can only serve to worsen the death of the 'Canadian Dream'" we said on Tuesday.
As it turns out, we were right.
The currency's decline is having a pronounced effect on Canadians' grocery bills.
As Bloomberg reminds us, Canada imports around 80% of its fresh fruits and vegetables. When the loonie slides, prices for those goods soar. "With lower-income households tending to spend a larger portion of income on food, this side effect of a soft currency brings them the most acute stress" Bloomberg continues.
Of course with the layoffs piling up, you can expect more households to fall into the "lower-income" category where they will have to fight to afford things like $3 cucumbers, $8 cauliflower, and $15 Frosted Flakes.
As Bloomberg notes, James Price, director of Capital Markets Products at Richardson GMP, recently joked during an interview on BloombergTV Canada that "we're going to be paying a buck a banana pretty soon."
Have a look at the following tweets which underscore just how bad it is in Canada's grocery aisles. And no, its not just Nunavut: it from coast to coast:
Three bucks. For a cucumber. pic.twitter.com/xGkygxkxqB
— Steve Ladurantaye (@sladurantaye) January 12, 2016
If the CAD $ gets any weaker we might be able to buy groceries with shiny rocks #Canada
— Josh Landine (@joshlandine) January 12, 2016
@sladurantaye Heh. Had a similar reaction when I saw the price of cauliflower. Welcome to the future… pic.twitter.com/fxloxyePY3
— Craig Saila (@saila) January 12, 2016
The cost of Tide detergent in Nunavut: pic.twitter.com/2t2xA1EmYk
— themsteri (@teririch) December 31, 2015
And while some Canadians might think this is a regional phenomenon ...
... folks in the northern parts of the Great White North do have the most cause to cry foul:
No "Jack Nasty" it's not The Great Depression, but as we highlighted three weeks ago, it is Canada's depression and it's likely to get worse before it gets better. "Last year, fruits and veggies jumped in price between 9.1 and 10.1 per cent, according to an annual report by the Food Institute at the University of Guelph," CBC said on Tuesday. "The study predicts these foods will continue to increase above inflation this year, by up to 4.5 per cent for some items."
If you thought we were being hyperbolic when we suggested that if oil prices don't rise soon, Canadians may well eat themselves to death, consider the following from Diana Bronson, the executive director of Food Secure Canada:
"Lower- and middle-class people — many who can't find a job that will pay them enough to ensure that they can afford a healthy diet for their families" — also feel the pinch of rising food prices"
"The wrong kind of food is cheap, and the right kind of food is still expensive."
In other words, some now fear that the hardest hit parts of the country may experience a spike in obesity rates as Canadians resort to cheap, unhealthy foods. As we put it, "in Alberta it's 'feast or famine' in the most literal sense of the phrase as those who can still afford to buy food will drown their sorrows in cheap lunch meat and off-brand ice cream while the most hard hit members of society are forced to tap increasingly overwhelmed food banks."
And the rub is that there's really nothing anyone can do about it.
Were the Bank of Canada to adopt pro-cyclical measures to shore up the loonie, they would risk choking off economic growth just as the crude downturn takes a giant bite out of the economy - no food pun intended.
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yes, but what is interesting is that CDN Gov aka Mint is valuing 1 ounce at $100 CDN
They are monetizing silver to a reasonable figure.
The old $5 coins, that is old school. Plus a bank will give you $5 for it. so you have to sell it on the black market for silver content.
Now I have a stupid question. Why would I pay $20US for a one ounce(which Idk if it's even a troy ounce, btw) $20 silver coin when spot price is in the neighborhood of only $14.10/ troy oz.? Is it me who is crazy for paying 6 bucks markup per coin? I know premiums are quite high for bullion coins no matter where they are from but a 42.55% markup is well INSANE! Now if you were to want to sell me $5 Canadian Mapleleafs Silver at spot converted currency to US(I'll pay US) you've got a deal. I'll also pay shipping!
Theres going to be a rude awakening some day when people realize that they just cant walk out the door and return with everything they need.
They'll be jumping out the windows like new yourk city garbage bags on trash day.
Not one of them could grow a simple tomato and can it. Or make their own soap or a good bottle of moon shine.
Why? Because they never dreamed that they would have to. Never even crossed anyones mind. Shopping is like outer space, right? It goes on forever.
It's almost impossible to buy anything that's unprocessed, and even then, it's always in small quantities.
They sell 1 and 2 pound bags of onions, potatoes, carrots. Long gone are the 20 and 50 pound bags that people would store in their "cold cellar" People don't even know HOW to cook anymore. Everything is prepackaged and ready made, and of course, ten times the cost.
And like you said, nobody knows how to can or preserve anymore. There's no "app" for it on their phone.
I'm writing one even as you type. it's called "Ican"
Our Fed always claim it's transitory....
Fed also says deflation. lower prices, is bad.
Guess this Canadian event must be good for the Canadian central banksters.
Hgher prices are great for the central banksters until the litlle people take to the streets.
lots more ways down to go for the $CAD
I live in Alberta and was down sized fom rmy job last week - I previously lived in the USA for more than 15 years. Yes groceries are more expenssive here but the crazy prices they are showing are from the far North - not here in Alberta. Gas is now .75 center a liter- 24 beer costs north of 45 and cigarettes are beyond expensive.
Clean fresh air- very little gun crime - what is that worth versus downtown Chicago? Health Care - while not prefect in Canada is free and education is reasonable at all universities. When i lived in the US we spent over 800 month for health care- which was excellent. There is no perfect place to live anymore and when the SHTF it will be safer up here than on the mean streets on the USA.
Funny Scotia Bank is sold out of silver bars and coins up here- hmmm.
indeed, when "the turner diaries" turns into reality, places that are cold and dont have many minorities (blacks, latinos) will be safe havens
Iceland is looking very good now!
I live in Alberta and was down sized from my job last week - I previously lived in the USA for more than 15 years. Yes groceries are more expenssive here but the crazy prices they are showing are from the far North - not here in Alberta. Gas is now .75 center a liter- 24 beer costs north of 45 and cigarettes are beyond expensive.
Clean fresh air- very little gun crime - what is that worth versus downtown Chicago? Health Care - while not prefect in Canada is free and education is reasonable at all universities. When i lived in the US we spent over 800 month for health care- which was excellent. There is no perfect place to live anymore and when the SHTF it will be safer up here than on the mean streets on the USA.
Funny Scotia Bank is sold out of silver bars and coins up here- hmmm.
When I lived in the US in 2002 and changed to a smaller company my Cobra coverage through Aetna jumped to $1800/mo for me and the wife, plus all the hi deductible and copays.Yes those Nunavut prices have always been high. Weed grown in BC sells for double in Nunavut compared to the other Provinces.Here in expensive Vancouver cucumbers are $1.50 and cauliflower is by weight.But I can go out for a dinner of Japanese ramen noodles and pot stickers at a nice place for under $ 10 US and I have traveled in the US quite a bit last year and found prices very high even in US dollar terms.
I live in Oregon...organic veggies and beef everywhere... very few gun restrictions and so everybody has one and only one homicide..
the weather is more easy to live with than canada.. and dont talk to me about fresh air, they are spraying chemtrails in canada too..go hail your queen as americans hails obama and clinton. healthcare in canda is a catastrphe, just like the U.S. canada is no different than the u.s. They are part of nato and follow the rules of the queen. canada is nothing more than another of the 50 some states of the U.S. You guys follow the same globalist rules, fight the same banker wars, still have gmo, still hae chemtrails, and still have stupid people in the universities...canada is nothing more than another state of the U.S. get over it.
I'll just have the WTI soup and a shit sandwich with no bread.
The Keynesian economic PhDs want to keep printing and they get a Zimbabwe result.
The sneaky part of this new food-price inflation phenomena is how the size, contents and volumes of packaged goods have all be stealthily reduced while prices edge higher!
Canada's aggressive unions & socialist governmental policies have both decimated what little manufacturing existed! If commodity prices do not reverse sharply Canada is done-like-dinner!
If the globe slips into accelerated global deflation/recession/depression Canada will be pounded beyond belief!
Boy .... I need to open a store in Nunavut.
Eskimos eat white men up there, it's cheaper than shopping
No wonder they're so chubby. They need to switch over to crack whores.
Look up a map of Nunavut... 725,000 square miles of Arctic (same as Alaska) with 35,000 people. Those prices are not the prices in southern Canada. This article does not give a good reality of real prices in 99% Canada.
That 4 litres of chocolate milk is 6 dollars on sale and it is on sale often. We can charge what we want for milk now, it used to be regulated to the penny. Air freight is expensive.
I've purchased a litre of organic chocolate milk and it was 5 dollars. Worth it. It was delivered by truck from 1500 kilometers away.
The california drought has increased retail produce this year in the US. Califlower is $7/head here in arkansas, iceburg lettuce, $2/softball size head. 10% sales tax in arkansas, except on groceries...only about 1.5%, unless your buying with EBT foodstamps card...then no sales tax on food.
But of course it is always to good to lay all this 'panic' where it belongs...on the governmental leadership that never met a neocon that it didn't like.
But hey, it isn't like we didn't know this was going to happen...been brewing now for a long time.
wwxx
what is the criteria for getting food stamps?
Do you know what the word "neocon" means?
Someone who just arrived at the prison?
Thanks for that info. If it is 7 dollars a head in Arkansas then it will be 9-10 dollars in Canada.
Those would be sale prices in Australia.
Not true. I just did a check...
Exact same cucumber (approx. AUD equiv in brackets)
UK £0.49 at Waitrose ($1.02)
AUS $1.90 at Coles ($1.90)
CAD $3.00 as per article. ($3.00)
Cauliflower
UK about £1 (A$2)
AUS $3.90
Can $8.00
And really, the cucmber price in canada is $2. Who would pay 5.99 for 2 when a set of 3 is $6? Would be better if they sold then indivisually of course...
China has factories.. yuan went down. Russia and Canada have oil... ruble and CAD went down. Norway has oil.. kroner went down...
USA has nothing... but USD went up...
USA has military but Iran arrested some US sailors in boston whalers ...
hmmmm..... deliberate show of weakness?
The dollar going up has nothing to do with strength. It's a clamor for dollars to settle dollar denominated debt.
Should set up a system to allow Canadians free residency and right to work in USA.
CDN refugees...?
No way. We'll just take Canada over and seize their resources. The people can go back to England, we don't want any Canookie Crooks here.
The American track record for "taking over" anything recently hasn't been great.
I think Canada should be pretty easy.
Everyone else does! I try to work out of USA and am denied!
Better know how to speak Spanish though.
And forget about maintaining your health.
Come on down and join the EBT roles.
In Canada the word buccaneer has an entirely different meaning than for most. It's the price we pay for corn... a buck an ear.
Canada has turned into a fascist/socialist backwater of big bloated expensive bureaucracy, unaffordable health-care, self-interested public service unions & staggering welfare costs. Whatever business & manufacturing remains burdened by soaring production costs & extortionate regulation all-the-while controlled by a ruthless oligopolistic banking syndicate! The newly minted fresh-faced indealistic government has swung open the doors to solving the world's refugee problem & wasting precious resources on climate nonsense! I guess it won't be long before we can 'puff' our problems away?
Unaffordable Healthcare? ?Bwaahahaaa! Family of 4 here paying $1000/yr no deductible and no caps like the US has like max $2m on cancer. Lots of Canadians return from US when their treatment maxes out.
Looks like voting for more fractional reserve banking scum is working out well for the cheese heads. Only two more axis of evil countries not using the all God like Rothschild Fractional reserve banking "system" North Korea and Iran." Such bad ape robots.
Their Lonnie was up .20% percent up against the Yankee shit stain today. So maybe they can buy some fucking more Ponzi schemes?
What's for breakfast -> Maple Syrup
What's for lunch -> Maple Syrup
What's for supper -> Maple Syrup...... life in the great white north...
Well we sure as hell aren't going to get any nutrients from that god damn Eggo.
There's the problem, that head of cauliflower is "product of USA" if you want cauliflower that doesn't cost 9 dollars it should be stamped "product of China".
A friend in Calgary says it hasn't gotten as bad as this article depicts, but
She said it's very bad in the far north of Alberta
http://globalnews.ca/news/2447177/new-campaign-aims-to-shed-light-on-the...
Far north Alta pays for all of south Alta & a huge chunk of the rest of Canada!
Top shelf product/livestock out of California is going to China. And has been for over 5 years per a field worker I spoke with. Costco could once be counted on to have prime selection. Not so any longer, of course, bottom shelf is going to American grocery stores. Canada is one of the largest import of US goods. Engineered famine is underway. This is a crime againt humanity. Big Ag now owns all small farms as they too had predatory lending practices offered to them when assets were blown up in value and then used as collateral. Then, the rug was pulled out from under them. There are chain link fences and security cameras around orchards. This is also new.
Could it be that when you live at higher latitudes ...you pay higher prices?.... Go South young man...
Cauliflower only cost $5 USD in Atlanta
Green Pepper is $1/each
Bartlett pears are about $1/each
Granny Smith Apples are $1/lb
Health Insurance with high deductible that only covers 50% with huge copay only $300/month
My rent with utilities....2 bedroom about $1000/month
Top Sirloin $6.99/lb
Rice is about $1.50/lb.
Chicken Thighs $1.49/lb
3lbs of sweet onion for $3.99/lb
I get baby bok choy at Asian Market for $1.49/lb
Shiitake mushrooms are $5.99/lb
2 lbs of pepper jack cheese is $6
Box of Ritz Crackers is $2.90
Coffee is $6/lb
Bananas are $0.59/ lb
I prepare and then cook all my meals and it cost me $70-$85 per week. I always bargain shop else it would be double.
Car insurance is $600/year.
internet w/ land phone is $100/month for sketchy service.
I don't buy, or eat any processed food (except Ritz crackers. No milk, no cereal.
Asian market is the best value w/ freshest veggies.
Govt to the rescue! Price controls in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
those are the government controlled prices.
Could it be that when you live at higher latitudes ...you pay higher prices?.... Go South young man...