Add mustard to the ever-expanding list of grocery items becoming more expensive. 😔 What’s the latest thing on your grocery bill that’s causing sticker shock?
France, the world's biggest consumer of the popular condiment, is already facing shortages while other countries are seeing prices climb as last year's mustard seed stocks are depleted.
For example, a hundredweight of yellow mustard seeds, roughly 45 kilograms, cost more than $150 a week ago — triple the $50 price tag from a year ago, according to a Saskatchewan database of agricultural commodity prices. The Calgary-based business owner ended up paying about 400 per cent more than usual — an astronomical cost increase he's mostly had to absorb.
"We also worked to prioritize in our Grey Poupon portfolio that we know are customer favourites to ensure we would avoid shortages of those key products," the company said in an emailed statement.McCormick & Co., Inc., maker of French's mustard, said it's not experiencing shortages of mustard seeds.
Indeed, the shortage has underscored how little of the mustard seed crop grown in Canada stays here to be processed into a condiment.