Canada’s grocery supply chain is arguing over a fee that never appears on a shelf label. Maple Leaf Foods told customers it would add 11 cents a kilogram on prepared meats and poultry from 6 April, reviewed against fuel prices. Tree of Life and CTS Foods added $10 a delivery. Sunrise Farms added 5 cents a kilogram plus $10 a delivery from 13 April.
The large chains are not all paying. Empire, which owns Sobeys, said it had turned down some of the requests. Independent grocers told The Globe and Mail and Canadian Grocer they do not have that leverage: a weight-based fee on a trailer of meat can add thousands of dollars a week, and a store clearing a thin net margin cannot absorb it. The office that oversees the grocery code reminded members that a surcharge is a cost change, and that cost changes have to follow the notice already written into supply agreements.
Prices cooled, then stuck
The surcharge fight is landing on a shelf that is no longer rising as fast as it was. Industry analysis of official price data put grocery inflation at 2.8% in August, under the 3% headline consumer-price index for the first time since July 2024. The same prices were still about 29% higher than in August 2021. For suppliers, the commercial risk is a fee the biggest customers will dispute and the smaller ones will pass on.
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