A bunch that represents unbiased grocers says its members are being harm by the Manitoba authorities’s freeze on the retail value of one-litre cartons of milk.
The federal government’s transfer hits retailers at a time when their wholesale costs are going up, which can eat into skinny revenue margins, the Canadian Federation of Unbiased Grocers stated Friday.
“It’s not sustainable,” Gary Sands, a senior vice-president with the group, stated from Toronto.
“Unbiased grocers function on roughly an general margin of two per cent revenue. That’s to pay your employees, preserve the lights on, and so forth. In case your (wholesale) value will increase are past two per cent, how in anybody’s enterprise mannequin do you retain working with out passing that on to your clients?”
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Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew stated the retail value freeze is required to assist individuals with the price of residing.
“We’re squeezing the revenue margins to avoid wasting you cash,” Kinew stated.
“Fairly than attempt to squeeze the dairy producer or the buyer, we’re saying that these grocery chains might help us out a bit throughout this cost-of-living disaster.”
Manitoba is among the many few provinces that regulate the worth of milk, and there are completely different most costs for skim, two per cent and different varieties. Most retail costs vary from $1.93 a litre for skim milk to $2.10 a litre for homogenized, with greater quantities in rural areas to account for transportation prices.
The value limits solely apply to one-litre containers, however the authorities is contemplating increasing its regulatory regime to cowl two- and four-litre models as properly. The federal government not too long ago introduced that the utmost costs, final adjusted 11 months in the past, shall be stored frozen for all of 2026.
Grocers throughout the nation have not too long ago been suggested of wholesale value hikes by some processors, Sands stated. In Manitoba, the NDP authorities is elevating most wholesale costs for a lot of purchasers by 4 cents a litre as of Feb. 1.
Unbiased grocers serve many rural and distant communities the place there is probably not one other grocery outlet, Sands stated.
“They should run a enterprise,” he stated. “They’ve to have the ability to preserve their doorways open and should you’re going to speak about freezing costs, you simply can’t go ‘Zap,’ decide one a part of the provision chain and say, ‘You guys alone are going to bear the coast of freezing costs.”
© 2026 The Canadian Press
