Galen Weston apparently lied when he told the Senate Agriculture Committee that a grocery code of conduct resulted in price increases in Australia.
The company issued a retraction on Christmas Eve.
Weston has opposed a code, probably because it would curtail Loblaws pressure on suppliers.
Sylvain Charlebois, food industry economist at Dalhousie University, said in a recent column that food prices in Australia and the United Kingdom, which have adopted codes of practice, actually declined on an inflation-adjusted basis between 2013 and 2023 while Canada’s went up by 8.9 per cent.
A Canadian code of practice, which would be voluntary, has yet to be adopted. Charlebois it should be mandatory.
