Farmers don’t bear full blame for grocery prices, APAS says

Many Canadians are still feeling it in their wallet on trips to the grocery store, but Saskatchewan farmers say the blame doesn’t solely lie with them.

The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) recently released a report which found that grocery food inflation wasn’t exclusively caused by an increase in commodity prices.

APAS president Ian Boxall discussed the findings on Wednesday’s Evan Bray Show.

“We undertook this study just to show the correlation between what the farmer gets and what the consumer is paying at the grocery store shelf,” Boxall said.

Boxall said commodity prices do have an impact, but there isn’t a direct correlation between what the farmer gets and how much a price has increased.

While farmers can sometimes negotiate, Boxall said they aren’t ever able to set their price for things like grain, as those prices are set by buyers.

“So I decided today I want to sell some wheat. I phone the elevator, I phone a grain buyer (and) I say, ‘OK, what’s the price of wheat?’ ” he said. “They dictate to me what the price is. I decide whether or not I’m going to sell at that …

“The grain buyer will tell me what they’re willing to pay me. That doesn’t matter what my costs are. None of that’s figured in. It’s just what the market is and they dictate what the price is.”

APAS’s report was based on eight consumer products made in Saskatchewan: Beef, pork, beer, canola oil, margarine, lentils, flour and bread.

Boxall also spoke about his disappointment with the amendment to Bill C-234, a bill that was supposed to give farmers a carveout on the carbon tax when paying for fuel to heat and/or cool barns or to dry grain.

After multiple amendments, carveouts for heating/cooling and greenhouses have been removed. The Senate also voted to shorten the sunset clause from eight years to three.

“I think Bill C-234 would just give producers a little bit of grace on that carbon tax (and) give us a little bit of ease in that cost,” Boxall said.

He said producers spent the most money ever in 2022 to grow crops.

“Carbon tax is one of those expenses, so being able to get that reprieve on the carbon tax on drying our grain or heating or cooling of our barns just would have been something to help the producer out,” he said.

Boxall said farmers are looking at things like seeding plans and fertilizer rates to try to get costs down heading into spring, which is especially important given the minimal amounts of snow the province has received.