{"id":553351,"date":"2026-03-22T14:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553351\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:08:09","slug":"how-a-toronto-grocer-is-coping-with-food-price-pressures-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/553351\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Toronto grocer is coping with food price pressures"},"content":{"rendered":"

A supermarket that sells Middle Eastern products is worried about rising costs and inability to import products from the region. John Vennavally-Rao reports. <\/p>\n

At a large Toronto supermarket known for its Iranian and Middle Eastern staples, shelves remain full of customers\u2019 favourites\u2014at least for now. But the store\u2019s longtime operator warns that could change later this year as the war in the Middle East disrupts some food supplies and drives up global prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a warehouse that\u2019s fully stocked for the next three to six months,\u201d says Sam Fayaz who owns Khorak Supermarket. \u201cBut our suppliers are running out.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"Sam Fayaz of Khorak Supermarket Khorak Supermarket owner Sam Fayaz holds up a jar of pickles from Iran. (John Vennavally-Rao\/CTV News) <\/p>\n

Some of the Iranian products they carry include jarred pickles, dried fruits, nuts and distilled waters. If the war continues for several months, some of those items will no longer be available. Iran barred all such exports earlier this month to protect supplies for it\u2019s own citizens. <\/p>\n

\u201cAny food product coming out of Iran will be hard to obtain,\u201d says Fayaz. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s zero production happening. A lot of the producers have closed shop. Nobody\u2019s working. Everybody\u2019s staying at home until this war is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fayaz says it\u2019s already hard to get Iranian rice. <\/p>\n

\"\"Iranian rice Bags of Iranian rice could soon be unavailable with suppliers running out. (John Vennavally-Rao\/CTV News) <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re unable to secure anything,\u201d he says. \u201cI managed to grab a couple of skids here and there from a few different suppliers the last couple of days but they\u2019re pretty much done.\u201d <\/p>\n

For nearly four decades, Khorak Supermarket has been a hub for Toronto\u2019s Iranian community. It began as a small corner store opened by Fayaz\u2019s parents who fled the Iran-Iraq war and came to Canada in 1986. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey started what was once a small little convenience store of approximately 1,500 square feet,\u201d he said. \u201cOver the last 37 years, we managed to build it to what it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the store this week Persian New Year shoppers have been stocking up on traditional goods. One Iranian-Canadian customer told CTV News she struggled with whether to mark the day at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was debating to myself, do I celebrate it? But then I realized it\u2019s a cultural thing, and if we don\u2019t, we\u2019re letting the mullahs win,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

When asked if she was concerned about food prices rising because of the conflict, she said it was a \u201csmall price to pay\u201d for regime change. <\/p>\n

\"\"Khorak Supermarket Khorak Supermarket in Toronto sells food items from around the Middle East and in particular Iran. (John Vennavally-Rao\/CTV News) <\/p>\n

Fayaz says he can source products from countries like Turkiye to replace what runs out from Iran. But he says suppliers are warning him products from countries around the Middle East will get more expensive because of the rising cost of fertilizer, which is usually shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. The surge in oil prices is also driving up shipping costs. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an economic ripple effect that\u2019s taking place, and we\u2019re going to have to wait and see how that\u2019s going to play out,\u201d says Fayaz. <\/p>\n

He gets items like dates from Saudi Arabia and tahini from Lebanon. Those costs could go up. <\/p>\n

Fayaz also noted that some of the plastic packaging his products come in will get more expensive because they\u2019re made from petroleum products. <\/p>\n

He says suppliers are calling for prices to increase but for now, he insists he\u2019s holding the line on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re prepared for the next six months of coverage, so there won\u2019t be any price increases,\u201d he said. \u201cOur customers are the most important people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he acknowledges what\u2019s coming. \u201cWithin the next three to six months, we\u2019re going to, unfortunately, see rising costs of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppliers \u2026 are telling us to brace ourselves for the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A supermarket that sells Middle Eastern products is worried about rising costs and inability to import products from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-553351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}