Thank you very much, Mr. Lemaire.
Mr. Chair and committee members, I'm pleased to be able to speak with you today.
As chair of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, or CPMA, I have visibility to the scope of challenges across our supply chain. As a Canadian wholesaler, importer and exporter based in Montreal, I live with these issues every day.
Even prior to the Omicron wave of the pandemic, a survey of CPMA members last fall found labour shortages reported by 92% of growers, 75% of wholesalers, and 100% of retailers—with warehouse labour noted as a particular area of concern.
As international shipping companies have sent empty containers back to Asia and posted record high profits, the availability and costs of containers have become a huge challenge for Canadian importers and exporters. Over the past two years, freight truck shipping costs have also increased 50% to 80%, both cross‑border and domestically.
From my own experience at Courchesne Larose, I can attest that we are seeing the following areas of impact.
Between May 2021 and December 2021, when looking at our volume of at least 400 truck loads per week, we have seen a minimum increase of $250,000 per week in freight costs. That's quite an increase.
We have seen important issues related to access to labour and absenteeism. We currently have a labour gap of 15%, which is lower than the market average of 20% for our sector. We are seeing absenteeism decline as we emerge from Omicron.
We are also suffering from an impact on availability of supply. The just‑in‑time program, which has taken over 10 years to build, is under tremendous strain due to the logistics issues, labour and delays. This is why consumers are seeing disruptions in product availability.
While every port of entry is different, we continue to see challenges both nationally and internationally as most jurisdictions are suffering from trucking issues and labour. Also, maritime ports are seeing significant unloading and loading delays, creating challenges to our integrated supply chain.
These examples all impact the average cost of fresh fruit and vegetables. In the last year alone—