Mr. Chair, committee members, good evening.
Tonight I will discuss the growing inflationary pressures impacting the supply chain and food prices.
There's no doubt that food prices have gone up due to rising costs for suppliers and producers. However, it's important to keep in mind that our retail prices do not reflect all the effects of inflation, because we absorb some of the costs.
As a recent Statistics Canada report confirmed, the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing war in Ukraine, unfavourable weather conditions, higher global prices for inputs such as fertilizer and natural gas, geopolitical instability, higher transportation costs, longer transportation times, higher packaging prices, labour shortages and higher labour costs are all contributing to these increases.
As industry experts have pointed out, the biggest driver of higher food prices on grocery shelves is manufacturers, processors and wholesalers raising rates repeatedly and almost across the board as they themselves are facing cost increases. That's not to castigate the vendors; that's a simple statement of fact.
In 2022, Metro received more than 27,000 price increases from suppliers just for dry grocery products, almost three times the yearly average. Canadians are seeing a portion of these reflected on their grocery bills and in the cost of everyday goods.
Our industry continues to experience higher than normal inflationary pressures, and the teams in all our banners are working hard to offer quality products at competitive prices.
Our revenue has increased, but so have our expenses. What hasn't changed is our commitment to delivering value for our customers. What also hasn't changed are our profit margins, which have remained stable for many years.
We take our responsibility to meet the nutrition and health needs of the communities we serve very seriously. Metro is a business and a public company. We compete for customers. We compete for talent, and we compete for capital in an open market.
I hope we can have an honest discussion today about the root causes of food price inflation and how all stakeholders can work with industry to help mitigate supply challenges.
We know that families across Canada are struggling with rising food prices. Our team works tirelessly to deliver the best possible value across our banners with competitive prices, our full range of private label products and our efficient weekly promotions.
All our Quebec and Ontario banners offer products at very competitive prices to cost-conscious and quality-conscious consumers. We're very proud that the Quebec magazine Protégez-Vous found that Super C delivers the best value for customers provincewide.
Supporting the communities in which we live and work remains at the heart of what we do to help the most vulnerable and those most in need.
In 2022, Metro is proud to have donated $50 million in food to food banks in Quebec and Ontario, the equivalent of 4.5 million kilograms of food or 9 million meals. This was in addition to a financial contribution of $5.5 million to various causes.
Furthermore, through the participation of our network of stores and pharmacies, and thanks to our customers' generosity and the hard work of Metro employees, $6.8 million was collected for various causes in 2022, including help for the people of Ukraine, the Red Cross and the United Way.
In closing, the inflammatory language used to describe the grocery industry in the past few months has been untrue and unproductive. To say that grocers like Metro are causing food price inflation or using it to pad our profit margins is simply not true. Experts agree that the causes of food price inflation are far beyond the control of grocers. At Metro, our publicly disclosed growth targets have remained the same. As I said previously, our profit margins have remained stable for many years, and we have not passed on all the impact of inflation to customers as we have absorbed a part of the increase.
As your committee looks for ways to address rising food costs, I hope you will work with all parts of the supply chain to find solutions.
Thank you.