WESTLOCK — As workers at the Rogers sugar refinery in Vancouver, B.C., continue their strike, the sugar shortage is now being felt across Alberta, including the Town & Country This Week readership area.
Local bakeries and grocery stores are some of the places experiencing the impact of the strike and sugar shortage.
Food division manager for the North Corridor Co-op Guy Berkner said they are “lucky to have a limited supply” of sugar at their stores in Boyle and Thorhild.
“The Rogers sugar strike is starting to affect everybody. We have limited supplies,” said Berkner, noting their warehouse in Edmonton has been restricting amounts to stores. “They limit it so that most stores can get a little bit at least …and we put limits on ourselves for customers, with a limit of one per customer per item.”
Here in Westlock, Kerri’s Café co-owner Kerri-Lee Kostiw said she is aware of the sugar shortage and it has not significantly impacted her bakery so far, but she is still concerned.
“I’ve been noticing sometimes I can’t get brown sugar or other sugars,“ said Kostiw. “So yes, it’s definitely a concern because it’s an ingredient that we need."
“Hopefully I can get through Christmas without (changing suppliers),” she added, noting a similar situation occurred with salt this fall as well.
Kostiw said she will monitor the ongoing situation and will continue purchasing sugar about once a week via a distributor in Edmonton and locally as well.
Westlock resident Wayne Houle was out shopping at Engel’s Your Independent Grocer with his wife Donna last week.
“We came to look if they had any sugar left and the shelves are bare,” said Houle, noting they should be OK for sugar throughout the holidays.
“No, I don’t think we’re worried, we have enough. We thought maybe we should get some extra (because of the strike).”
For several days, the shelf where two, four and 10-kilogram bags of sugar would normally be available at Engel’s Your Independent Grocer in Westlock has been empty, but franchise owner Don Engel said they are hoping to get another shipment of sugar soon and pointed out the sporadic supply in recent weeks.
“There’s no yellow, no brown sugar at all … I have nothing right now. It’s sporadic … it’s not just us, it’s going to be all the other retailers too,” said Engel.
With a possibility of supply chains drying up and a lack of inventory at production facilities, area stores could be “low on sugar for a while,” Engel speculated, adding they are receiving sugar from Rogers refineries out east, in Toronto and Montreal, which may be operating around the clock to help supply the west.
“We’re probably getting resupplied from the east. It’s trickling into our warehouse here (in Calgary),” he said. “We ran out just a couple of days ago.”
Engel suggested that if you need sugar and are able to find some, you should probably buy it until the strike is over "because we don’t know when the next shipment’s coming in."
Engel added that he and others are hoping the strike ends soon, pointing out the lengths that retailers are going to, to help ensure sugar is on store shelves for their customers this holiday season.
“I think it’s important to realize that everyone’s doing all they can. All the store managers, all the store owners, the companies, they’re trying to do what’s right by the customer and trying to make sure the disruption is as short as (possible), “ he said. “There’s many, many hands at work to get everyone sugar.”
