{"id":653585,"date":"2026-05-07T11:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/653585\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:18:16","slug":"iran-war-driving-up-imported-food-prices-hurting-african-south-asian-grocers-in-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/653585\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran war driving up imported food prices, hurting African, South Asian grocers in Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Grocers in Winnipeg who sell culturally specific items say they’re struggling as the Iran war makes importing goods more expensive.<\/p>\n

African and South Asian grocers in the city say costs for transportation \u2014 whether by land, air or sea \u2014 have gone up as oil prices have spiked, making it more expensive to bring the diaspora populations they serve products from their home countries.<\/p>\n

Benchmark oil prices were around 50 per cent higher Wednesday than they were before the U.S. and Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28, starting the war.<\/p>\n

Grocery Bazar in St. Vital carries products from Pakistan, India and the Middle East, among other parts of the world. Store supervisor Ahmed Rathore said the cost of putting those products on his shelves has gone up about 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

“You can say that every day the price is increasing,” Rathore said, but the store’s only choice is to accept the costs.<\/p>\n

“These product you can’t buy from everywhere,” he said. “So we have to keep [importing] these products.”<\/p>\n

\"AAfrican Foodways Market’s Bernice Fasina says the cost of shipping products by air \u2014 necessary in cases where the food needs to be fresh \u2014 has gone up by about 50 per cent since the war began. (Travis Golby\/CBC)<\/p>\n

African Foodways Market’s Bernice Fasina said prices have also significantly gone up for her store, which gets many of its goods imported from Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Fasina said the cost of shipping products by air \u2014 necessary in cases where the food needs to be fresh \u2014 has gone up by about 50 per cent since the war began. <\/p>\n

A recent shipment of just over a tonne of products cost about $16,000, but would previously have cost about $10,000, she said.<\/p>\n

“There is a limit to what we can do to increase the price,” said Fasina, adding the business has to absorb some of the additional costs to avoid scaring away customers.<\/p>\n

A 2.2-kilogram bag of Ofada rice, a type of rice from Nigeria, was going for $18.99 at the store Wednesday.<\/p>\n

That’s up from $16, but even with the increased price, “we’re absorbing, like, $3 on this one,” she said. <\/p>\n

“What are we going to do? That is the only option to help the community get the taste of home.”<\/p>\n

‘Consumers will end up paying’<\/p>\n

Rathore said costs are rising across the board, not just for exports.<\/p>\n

“Utilities, Hydro, everything \u2014 we have to pay that,” he said. “We have to pay the wages, we have to pay the rent. So how we can survive?” <\/p>\n

Sylvain Charlebois,\u00a0director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, said the disruption to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz has affected global supply chains for the “energy-intensive” food industry.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Specialty grocers struggle as fuel costs rise:\"\"<\/p>\n

Specialty stores struggling after months of fuel price increases<\/p>\n

Winnipeg convenience stores selling imported products are struggling to make a profit. Owners say it costs thousands of dollars more to bring products to Canada from overseas because of rising fuel fees this year.<\/p>\n

The strait is a regional chokepoint, through which about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and fifth of global liquified gas must regularly cross to get to market.<\/p>\n

Charlebois said consumers are just now starting to feel the impact, as higher grocery prices typically lag energy costs by a few months.<\/p>\n

The oil rally really started about a month before the war, he said, “so we’re way beyond the three-month mark, and that’s kind of the lag time before we start seeing food prices go up.”<\/p>\n

When it comes to imported goods, Charlebois said grocers may try to keep their prices steady in spite of higher freight costs for a time, but they’ll likely have to add some of those costs into what they charge eventually.<\/p>\n

“In one way or another, consumers will end up paying for these extra costs,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-653585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653585","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=653585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}