Edmonton restaurants forced to adapt to high food prices amid global supply chain disruption
Some Edmonton-area restaurants are feeling the effects the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the global supply chain.
As food prices rise, some restaurateurs are forced to pass those increases onto consumers.
"It affects us the same way it affects people at the grocery store," Chartier sous-chef Travis Golbeck told CTV News Edmonton. "We are seeing an increase in prices and we are seeing a decline in the availability of products."
The sous-chef for the Beaumont, Alta., French restaurant said over the last three years, the cost of flour has jumped 40 per cent and butter 12 per cent. The price of buckwheat has quadrupled in price this week alone.
"We use canola oil in our fryers, that’s a wonderful, beautiful Alberta product," he said. "Six months ago we were paying $33 for 20 litres and now we’re paying $55 for 20 litres in six months."
Over at Simply Supper, a frozen meal business in Edmonton, you'll find a similar story.
"Sometimes they send the price increases to me and I think they’re joking," owner Monita Chapman said. "It’s so unprecedented and so extreme that you just honestly don’t even believe it but it is true."
Chapman told CTV News Edmonton prices are the highest she's seen in 15 years.
"The supply chain just seems so disrupted that we can’t get our hands on the product that we need," she said. "It’s going up in some cases by $10 or $15 dollars for a case of something."
One expert says transportation costs, weather events and global staffing shortages are to blame.
"We are going to see some of that cost being carried on to us as consumers," said Heather Thomson from the Alberta School of Business.
Raising prices was something Chapman said she didn’t want to do, but felt she had no choice.
"For a family of four you’re going to see about $1 to $1.50 increase on our meals."
Meanwhile, Chartier has taken a slightly different approach by developing a new menu.
"Be really creative in the ingredients that we’re using and to use simple ingredients but to change them in beautiful wonderful ways to make the food elevated to make it something you couldn’t get at home," said Golbeck.
Thomson said consumers can expect the trend of high commodity prices to continue for some time.
"I think this is something we’re going to be looking for well into the holiday season and into 2022."
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of 'catastrophic' damage
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.