In Canada, the 8-Dollar Cauliflower Shows the Pain of Falling Oil Prices
By IAN AUSTEN

OTTAWA — Steamed, sautéed or stir-fried, cauliflower is standard fare on many dinner tables. In Canada, it is a luxury.

A head of cauliflower there now goes for around 8 Canadian dollars, a tripling in price, the strange foodie fallout from the low price of oil and other commodities.

The recipe for high-priced cauliflower starts with the currency.

As prices for commodities have dropped, the value of the Canadian dollar has fallen, a direct link to an economy that is dependent on oil and other resources. It makes imports, like fresh American vegetables during the dark Canadian winter, look especially costly. Two years ago, one Canadian dollar was worth 93 American cents. On Wednesday, it stood at 69 American cents.

The drought in California, where Canadians get most of their vegetables in the off-season, just compounds the sticker shock. With less bounty in the fields, farmers’ prices, in American dollars, are higher.

As a result, fresh vegetables feel more like a splurge for Canadian consumers.

Iceberg lettuce sells for 3 Canadian dollars, up from the typical 90 Canadian cents. One head of broccoli goes for $4, compared with $1.50 for two in the past. Last winter, a head of cauliflower was selling for 2.50 Canadian.

“We’ve gone through this cycle before with the dollar,” said Jim McKeen, owner of McKeen Metro Glebe, a grocery store in downtown Ottawa. “But there were issues on prices anyways because of supply in addition to this whole fiasco with the Canadian dollar. It’s a perfect storm.”

The Canadian dollar, in part, reflects the trouble in the country’s economy.

For years, Canada rode the global commodities boom. The rapidly growing Chinese economy — and its seemingly insatiable appetite for commodities — helped increase the price of oil, potash, nickel and the other Canadian resources.

With China’s demand now faltering, commodity prices have reversed course. Oversupply of oil has similarly devastated its price. Both factors are taking their toll on the Canadian economy. The gross domestic product increased just 0.6 percent in the third quarter of 2015, after six months of negative growth.

Since October, the decline in the Canadian dollar, already looking shaky against a surging American currency, has picked up speed.

In many ways, a weaker currency is helpful to the economy. The United States is overwhelmingly the largest market for Canadian exports, which are now less expensive across the border because of the currency’s fall.

And commodity exports are almost all priced in American dollars. So foreign exchange gains have helped cushion some of the blow to Canadian oil producers and mining companies.

“From a household point of view, what Canadians see is that their dollar isn’t going as far,” said Craig Alexander, vice president of economic research at the C.D. Howe Institute, an economic analysis and policy group. “But it’s good for Canadians, it’s good for jobs. The primary driver for economic growth going forward has to come from

Canada’s tourism industry and other service sectors, which had been suffering, are already experiencing gains from the currency drop. Luke Azevedo, the film commissioner for Calgary Economic Development, said there had been a notable rise in production in Alberta, where large portions of the movie “The Revenant” and the television series “Fargo” were filmed last year.

“It’s across the country and the dollar plays a fairly significant role,” Mr. Azevedo said.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emphasized Canada’s strengths in technology and education rather than its ailing natural resource sector.

“Our natural resources are important and always will be,” Mr. Trudeau said. “But Canadians know that growth and prosperity is not only based on what’s under our feet but particularly on what we have between our ears.”

Consumer costs are creeping up in a number of areas.

Just over a year ago, a 16-gigabyte iPad Mini 2 cost roughly the same in Canada and the United States. But this week, it was priced at $269 in the United States and 329 Canadian dollars.

Still, it could be worse. If the device’s price were based on the full movement in the exchange rate, the iPad would have been around 390 Canadian dollars.

Food is more price-sensitive.

The turnover in the grocery aisle, compared with, say, a clothing store, is faster, so changes in currency are more quickly reflected. And profit margins are thin, so grocery stores are less willing to absorb the losses.

The current collapse of the country’s dollar could have a more significant impact in supermarkets than it did in the early 2000s, according to Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario and an author of an annual study of Canadian food prices.

Professor Charlebois estimated that about 140 Canadian food processing plants have closed in recent years. Many were owned by multinationals that have replaced Canadian production with imports from their larger American plants. Kellogg’s ended a century of production in London, Ontario, just over a year ago.

The result, Professor Charlebois said, is that price increases will be seen throughout grocery stores and not just in their fresh produce aisles. Already, he said, some breakfast cereals have hit 10 Canadian dollars.

“We’re only 35 million people in Canada,” he said. “It’s a very small market on the global scale.”

Certain foods may be more insulated. Professor Charlebois said prices had risen only slightly for dairy, poultry and eggs. Those products are protected by a government-sanctioned cartel. The system limits production by farmers to keep prices stable, if high, in comparison with the United States, while effectively shutting out price competition from imports through high tariffs.

After announcing on Wednesday that the country’s key lending rate would stay at 0.5 percent, Stephen Poloz, the governor of the Bank of Canada, noted the impact of oil prices on the cost of groceries. “I sympathize very much for those for who food is a bigger percentage of their spending,” he said during a news conference. But he added that over all, savings from lower energy costs had more than offset price increases for imported products.

Nonetheless, food prices in Canada are climbing, leaving wholesalers, restaurateurs and grocery store owners scrambling.

Fishermen in Prince Edward Island now send most of their oyster harvest to the United States to capitalize on the currency difference. That’s leading to shortages at Canadian fishmongers, forcing some restaurant owners to reimport from the United States.

“It’s mind-boggling that I have to buy Malpeque oysters from my American importer in Boston,” said David McMillan, the co-owner of Joe Beef and two other restaurants in Montreal, adding that the cost of the oysters from Prince Edward Island had risen to 120 Canadian dollars a box from about 90 Canadian dollars. “That’s a lot of money for not a special oyster.”

A similar pattern is developing with Canadian beef heading to the United States. It has prompted Mr. McMillan to develop menus based around less expensive cuts and the recipes that suit them, like stews.

“We’re getting back to basics,” he said. “You roll with the punches. A good restaurant adapts.”

Sal Howell, the owner of two Calgary restaurants, River Café and Boxwood, said she was placing a renewed focus on locally available produce, not easy during Canada’s winter. “There’s a lot to do to wean yourself off of head lettuce from California,” she said. “I think root vegetables will definitely be the kind of thing people are talking about.”

天價花椰菜
油價跌＋加幣貶＋加州旱 拳頭大小180

新聞故事：花椰菜（cauliflower）是餐桌上常見的菜餚，不論水煮、清炒都很可口。但對愛吃花椰菜的加拿大人來說，1月下旬想吃這道花椰菜卻是一種奢侈。加拿大受石油價格大跌、加幣重貶和美國加州旱災影響，花椰菜價格翻漲3倍，一朵拳頭大的花椰菜要賣加拿大幣8元（約台幣180元）。

紐約時報報導，加拿大出現「天價花椰菜」的原因複雜，首先要從匯率說起。加拿大經濟依賴石油及其他資源出口，但國際原油供過於求，油價跌跌不休，拖累加元大幅貶值，進口生鮮蔬果價格飆漲。兩年前，1元加幣可以換93美分（約台幣30元），但1月20日的牌告匯率顯示，1元加幣只能換到69美分（約台幣23元）。

加拿大的非時令蔬菜大多從美國加州進口，偏偏加州之前飽受旱災之苦，蔬果產量銳減導致價格飆漲，這些蔬菜水果出口到加拿大的價格更是驚人。1月底在加拿大的超市，1顆花椰菜售價8加元（約台幣180元），是去年同期價格的3.2倍！不只花椰菜價格大漲，就連甘藍菜、萵苣的價格也飆上天。

渥太華食品雜貨店老闆麥基恩（Jim McKeen）說：「過去也曾經歷類似的情況，幣值下跌導致商品價格上漲。價錢的問題除了和供應量不足息息相關，加元又慘跌成這樣，形成一場完美風暴。」花椰菜在加拿大相當受歡迎，但天價花椰菜讓許多家庭主婦買不下手；一些餐館考量成本，索性暫時停賣花椰菜相關餐點。

天價花椰菜的問題反映出加拿大經濟困境，但加拿大旅遊觀光產業反而逆勢成長。加拿大幣值便宜，吸引許多遊客到加拿大觀光。大型電影製作公司也紛紛到製作成本相對低廉，風景又很漂亮的加拿大來取景拍攝。

加拿大卡加利市經濟發展局的電影接洽專員阿澤維多說，亞伯達省的製片活動顯著增加，美國影星李奧納多狄卡皮歐主演的電影《神鬼獵人》（The Revenant）和美國電視劇《冰血暴》（Fargo）去年都到卡加利市取景拍攝。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/business/dealbook/in-canada-5-cauliflowers-cost-more-than-a-barrel-of-oil.html

2016-02-15/聯合報/R09版/好讀周報國際力 陳韻涵