Bitter reality of the sugar shortage for Okanagan businesses
As the Rogers Sugar refinery strike in Vancouver continues into is seventh week, the future is starting to look a little less sweet for Okanagan bakeries.
Barry Yeo owns Bliss Bakery, which has stores in Peachland, West Kelowna, Kelowna and Penticton. Yeo told iNFOnews.ca he only found out about the strikes after putting in a sugar order for his Christmas cakes.
“I had to dig online to find out about it and immediately realized that the strike wasn't going anywhere, and I was going to run out of sugar if I didn't act on this right away,” he said.
READ MORE: Rogers Sugar strike taking some of the sweetness out of holiday season for bakers
In the middle of October, Yeo scoured the Okanagan in search of sugar, visiting suppliers in Vernon, Penticton and West Kelowna.
He accumulated enough to get him through the Christmas season. Beyond that, things seem less certain. Yeo was also shocked when he found that prices had doubled.
“I'm concerned more about when I get into the new year,” he said. “(For) cookies, 40% of the ingredients is sugar. If I see those prices double, my cookies, which are already relatively pricey, they're going to have to go up.”
“I can't put less sugar in one of my cookies, right?... The reality is that I'm just going to have to figure out the price increase.”
Yeo thinks smaller bakeries will bear the brunt of the limited and expensive sugar supplies.
“I took a day and we went out, we scoured the Okanagan for sugar because I kind of foresaw that this might be a bigger problem,” he said. “If businesses weren't able to do that, they're already seeing that massive price increase right before Christmas. They're not going to have a choice. They're going to have to pass it along to the consumer, right?”
Yeo empathizes with the Rogers strikes, but his biggest concern is that regardless of the outcome, sugar prices might not come back down.
“If you look at who bags your sugar, it's the same company across the country,” Yeo said. “So, if they want to increase it by a hundred per cent and just keep it there, once they sign the contracts, what are you going to do?”
Of course, sugar is only part of the recipe and inflation doesn't discriminate.
“It's just one more ingredient,” Yeo said. “What's next? Do eggs go up? Does flour go up?”
After the pandemic and a record-breaking fire season, more than half of all restaurants in the Okanagan are estimated to be operating at a loss. With this bitter turn of events, it looks like the damage could get even worse.
READ MORE: More than half the Okanagan's restaurants can't make ends meet
“I was really happy to see that the dairy board in Canada has decided to pause their next price increase,” Yeo said. “Because they recognize that inflation in Canada is brutal and milk, dairy, butter is a crucial ingredient in so many parts of our diet and our businesses. So that's great to see, but that's only one ingredient out of a hundred other ingredients.”
You can find out more about Bliss Bakery on their website here.
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