Canadian grocers share how they plan to ease impact of trade war
Canadians’ grocery bills are expected to be hit hard by the tariff war between Canada and the U.S., which is now in full force.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico, including the 10 per cent tariffs on energy, kicked in on Tuesday morning.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs against $155 billion of American goods, beginning with taxes on $30 billion worth of products immediately. The list of U.S. goods includes orange juice, peanut butter, wine, spirits, beer, coffee, appliances, apparel, footwear, motorcycles, cosmetics, and more.
He says duties will be slapped onto the remaining $125 billion of American products in 21 days.
“To my fellow Canadians, I won’t sugarcoat it, this is going to be tough,” said Trudeau.
Late Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said there’s a potential to meet “somewhere in the middle” when it comes to adjusting the tariffs on Canada. He suggested carve-outs for some industries are possible.
Daily Hive reached out to Canada’s major grocers, asking how the tariffs might impact prices and how they plan to ease the blow.
“These tariffs are essentially a tax on consumers and run the risk of increasing food prices,” a Loblaw spokesperson told us. “We continue to work with our suppliers to understand the impact on their products and to mitigate cost increases where possible.”
The grocery giant added that it has been working on sourcing alternatives from other countries for products it would usually purchase directly from the U.S.
“Our goal is to provide a comparable alternative to U.S. products, in both quality and price,” stated the spokesperson.
They added that Canadians shouldn’t expect to see the impact of tariffs immediately when it comes to grocery prices.
“We expect a wide range of timing depending on the type of product, the current level of inventory, and the ability to find alternatives,” the Loblaw spokesperson concluded.
Some Canadians online shared their distrust in corporations like Loblaw amid the imposed tariffs.
“The tariffs are here… will Galen use them [sic] as yet another excuse to increase prices?” reads one post on Reddit with hundreds of replies.
Empire Company Limited, the conglomerate that owns grocers like Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, FreshCo, and Foodland, told Daily Hive that it wants to protect its customers “to the greatest extent possible as our country responds to this unfortunate action by the United States.”
According to Empire spokesperson Tshani Jaja, over the past year, approximately 12 per cent of sales in its stores have come from products sourced in the U.S. She says they expect this number to decrease as they work to find alternatives to American sources.
“Our sourcing team is working to mitigate the potential impact of tariffs by category and by product for that relatively small portion of sales that are sourced from the U.S.,” added Jaja.
Daily Hive also contacted Walmart and Costco for comment but has not heard back.
Some Canadian grocers have also pledged to promote made-in-Canada goods.