“The federal government plans four food terminals and 20 to 40 smaller food hubs across Canada, with the goal of reducing prices by being less reliant on big grocery retailers’ supply chains.”
I’ll be curious how well this works, it strikes me as Carney’s response to Avi suggesting crown-corp grocers.
It definitely seems to want to split the difference by using independent wholesalers.
The Ontario Food Terminal has been in operation since 1954, and I think that’s the model…and it’s only open to independent grocers, who then resell the products.
…and it’s only open to independent grocers,
Are there many of those still in existence?
No, which I suppose is the point - it’s an attempt to help them compete.
No idea if it’s working, maybe someone in ON does.
I hope they do something about the meat processors’ cartel as well. It’s like 3 or 4 companies controlling 80% or more of the entire supply.
They keep the barrier to entry high enough that farmer cooperatives and small investors can’t even dream of entering the market unless they have tens of millions on hand.
They also need to allow individual farmers sell more than the current limits on eggs and animals processed on farm.
I don’t think it’s in opposition to an at-cost crown option. I read this as more infrastructure than operations. No reason a provincial crown corp couldn’t utilize the infrastructure to do retail sales at cost.
