For the second time in less than a year, the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) is announcing a price increase, this time of 3.7%, on average, for 2,550 products.
The increase will take place in two stages: the prices of most of the target products will increase on May 22, but the 80 products will only increase on July 17.
More than half of the price increases are concerned with specialty products, which are mainly offered at Espace Cellier, we read in a press release published on Monday morning. At least 1328 will experience a price increase of 3.3%.
However, there will be price reductions for 182 products, including 157 for specialty products. Prices of 606 products will remain stable.
This is the second price increase in six months on SAQ. At the beginning of last November, it announced that it would make an average price increase of 1.66% on 1,332 products, most of them in the next few days, although the prices of about 50 of them were mentioned only at the end of last January.
Transportation, staff shortages and climatic conditions
SAQ explains these price increases by several factors. First, rising shipping costs and supply chain disruptions add pressure to SAQ costs.
Second, supplier production costs have risen in recent months. Aside from the labor shortage, shortages related to dry materials (bottles, cork, labels, etc.), essential items for bottling and shipping products, put great pressure on prices.
third, Bad weather conditions in 2021 will still affect the supply of product from some wine regions. This is the case of Beaujolais and Burgundy.
Finally, on April 1, the Government of Canada increased excise duty rates on alcoholic beverages. For alcohol, an increase of 2.4% was applied.
Source: Radio-Canada
