Sugar is scarce in grocery stores for those seeking holiday baking supplies, and beekeepers are pushing their product as a solution to the dilemma.
Why it matters: Sugar supply rapidly shrunk in late November with a months-long strike ongoing at a Rogers Sugar plant.
Late November saw a rash of social media posts from beekeepers promoting honey as an alternative to sugar. Posts circulated on how to best substitute honey, including alterations to recipe quantities and baking times.
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The shortage comes after employees at one plant operated by Rogers Sugar, the holding company for Lantic Inc., walked off the job. The strike started Sept. 28.
The Vancouver facility is one of three refineries operated by the company, which is Canada’s biggest sugar supplier.
According to the Lantic Inc. website, the Vancouver facility can produce up to 240,000 tonnes of refined sugar a year, “dependant on market requirements and on production from the Taber beet sugar factory.”
The Alberta facility is dedicated to processing sugar beets and is the only other Rogers Sugar processor in Western Canada. Its annual production capacity sits at 150,000 tonnes. The company’s third refinery is in Montreal.
In late November, about two months since start of the strike, sugar stocks on grocery shelves suddenly plummeted. Many retailers imposed buying limits to preserve remaining stock, leading consumers to compare the situation to toilet paper shortages at the start of the pandemic.
Ian Steppler, chair of the Manitoba Beekeepers’ Association, hopes some customers will turn to honey, “and maybe if they start baking with honey, maybe they might be hooked with baking with honey.”
His counterpart in Alberta agreed.
“The timing is good,” said Connie Phillips, executive director of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. “I can’t imagine how many angry consumers [there are] if they can’t do their usual baking.”
Guy Chartier, CEO of Bee Maid Honey, said the company is checking with retailers to see if there are more honey sales than usual. Determining that will be complicated by the normal seasonal rise in sales.
“I don’t think it’s a panic situation yet,” he said, and the co-operative-based company has not received calls from customers looking for supplies.
Just in case, however, Bee Maid is gearing up for a spike in demand. That involves building more packed inventory in its warehouse, ready for shipping.
While the strike has been an issue for months, Chartier also noted the real rush on sugar only began in the last few weeks, and it may take time for those impacts to trickle down.
“It might be a couple of weeks before we feel it as a supplier to the grocery stores, but we are in touch with our grocery stores right now and trying to find out, you know, are they finding a substantial lift in sales in their honey section,” he said.
The sugar shortage won’t likely affect honey prices just yet.
“I think there are other, more significant market circumstances that would affect honey prices right now,” Chartier said.
In particular, most honey packers this spring had carryover inventory from last year. That supply has helped soften prices.
