By Paul Vieira
OTTAWA--Canada's antitrust watchdog said Tuesday it has launched a probe into the state of competition across the country's food-supply chain.
The Competition Bureau's decision comes less than a week after Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a food-security strategy that bemoaned the lack of competition along Canada's food-supply chain.
The agency said its examination would focus on food production and processing; transportation and distribution; and retail pricing practices. It intends to produce a report in about a year, the spring of 2027, that will recommend what steps lawmakers can take on improving food-supply competition.
Late last week, Carney traveled to a Toronto-area food terminal to present a food-security strategy. That strategy included money to expand existing food terminals and build new ones, and encourage the construction of commercial food hubs. The aim, Carney said, was to increase the number of independent grocers buying from food terminals by 15%. Carney added that the country's five largest grocers dominate food-supply chains, "leaving independent grocers with fewer options and higher costs. Too often, they must buy products through larger competitors at marked-up prices."
A Competition Bureau spokesman said the watchdog conducts its work independently, but is nonetheless pleased that Carney made competition a pillar of its food-security strategy.
Canadian officials have tried, although with limited success, to foster competition in the grocery-retail sector. In a 2023 report, the bureau said Canada needed more competition in the food retailing sector, arguing industry concentration has intensified alongside an increase in prices consumers pay for meat, vegetables and other grocery products.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024 that Canadian officials had assembled a list of about a dozen foreign grocery chains to try to lure to the country to compete against domestic heavyweights like Loblaw, Metro and Sobeys. Those foreign companies took a pass. Retail analysts said Canada's grocery sector was quite mature and foreigners would have trouble setting up a supply-chain network to serve the world's second-largest country by landmass.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-16-26 1555ET
