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The holiday season is not looking so sweet for Saskatchewan bakeries due to a brown sugar shortage in Western Canada.
A labour strike at the the Rogers Sugar refinery in Vancouver had 138 workers walk off the job on Sept. 28, and now bakeries and consumers are left with a bitter taste.
Keith Jorgenson, the owner of Nestor’s Bakery on Saskatoon’s 20th Street, said the bakery is feeling the impact of the shortage, especially with Christmas fast approaching.
Jorgenson said it’s easier to find granulated and icing sugar, but he has only been able to find one wholesaler that still has brown sugar available.
Brown sugar is a key ingredient in the bakery’s cinnamon buns, and baking the sweet treat with white sugar wouldn’t give the buns the same dark and caramelized effect.
“I think there’s also a bit of profiteering going on where people who still have supplies of brown sugar have raised the price just because they can,” Jorgenson said.
The wholesaler, which Jorgenson did not disclose, almost doubled its prices for brown sugar, which he predicts will only be temporary because of the shortage.
“Certainly coming out of a pandemic it is annoying when you still have these supply chain issues,” Jorgenson said.
Nestor’s Bakery owner Keith Jorgensen says the business is feeling the effects of a brown sugar shortage. (Shane Clausing/650 CKOM)
Canadian food researcher and professor Sylvain Charlebois said the Rogers Sugar refinery had some inventory at the time of the strike, but now there’s nothing left.
The shortage is affecting mostly the prairie provinces, as Charlebois noted that smaller business owners will especially feel the pinch if they have to turn to the United States or Eastern Canada for supplies.
“That’s going to be eating into their margins,” he said.
Earlier this year in February, a similar strike happened with Windsor Salt in Ontario.
Charlebois said the strike lasted around seven months and expects the sugar strike to last the same amount of time.
Charlebois was asked if a sugar shortage would be good for the health of Canadians.
“We do eat too much sugar, there’s added sugar in a lot of different things,” he replied, adding it’s important for people to check the labels on the foods they consume.
“At the end of the day it’s about taste (and) about flavours, especially this time of year.”
Charlebois said bakeries might be hit with a “double whammy” as the price of cocoa starts to surge.
Right now, the West African regions that produce cocoa are being impacted by a seasonal pest impacting production, sending cocoa prices to a 44-year high, Charlebois explained. He added that dark chocolate is what will be the most pricey by next year.
“If you like chocolate, especially dark chocolate, stock up now,” Charlebois said.
— With files from The Canadian Press and 650 CKOM’s Shane Clausing