With some Canadians struggling to afford groceries, and as frustrations with company income boil over and manifest as boycotts, the federal authorities says it is making an attempt to coax worldwide grocers to arrange store in Canada.
Throughout a Tuesday media convention, Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne instructed reporters that he continues “to take a look at whether or not there are overseas deep-discounters that may have an interest within the Canadian market.”
The minister has been open about his plans for months, and the Wall Avenue Journal first reported final month that he was courting a dozen European and U.S. corporations, together with German chains Aldi and Lidl, and U.S. chain Grocery Outlet Holding.
But grocery trade analysts in Canada say dangling a carrot in entrance of a world grocery store model will not clear up the consolidation downside — if there is a carrot to dangle in any respect.
Giving Canada’s grocery giants a run for his or her cash would require huge operational scale and funding within the nation’s market, stated Kevin Grier, a livestock, meat and grocery market analyst primarily based in Guelph, Ont.
“And for what? For what return? I am positive they’re questioning what the return could be,” stated Grier of the overseas grocers on Champagne’s record. “I do not suppose there’s plenty of, you can say, extra to be garnered [in the Canadian market].”
When the Competitors Bureau launched a wide-ranging report in June 2023 that assessed the state of the Canadian grocery trade, it concluded that extra competitors was wanted to carry costs down
