Consumers in the province will now have to look somewhere other than Superstore for fresh P.E.I. lamb. The Loblaws-owned chain has cancelled its contract with a local producer.

There will be no more P.E.I. lamb in the Charlottetown Superstore.
(CBC)

Allison Stewart has been breeding suffolk and cheviot sheep for 70 years, and last year his flock was chosen as the best in Canada. Breeding stock is his livelihood, but for the last decade he has also supplied the Charlottetown Superstore with fresh lamb. That relationship ended early in December.

"He told me he wouldn't buy any more lamb," Stewart told CBC News on Tuesday of his meeting with the store's new meat manager.

"He could get it cheaper from New Zealand, packaged and everything, and that was just the way it went."

CBC News visited the Charlottetown Superstore, and was told the price of fresh lamb from P.E.I. was out of reach of most consumers, so a decision was made to go exclusively with frozen New Zealand lamb.

Allison Stewart said he was 'not too fussy' about continuing to shop at Superstore.
(CBC)

On his farm in Dunstaffnage, just north of Charlottetown, Stewart makes no apologies for the price he charged for his lamb, saying it is the same as what others in the region charge. The Superstore market was a sideline for Stewart. It's not a major financial hardship to lose it, but he said he was "not too fussy" about the idea of continuing to shop at Superstore.

"We bought our groceries and our drugs [at Superstore]. Well it runs to about a thousand dollars a month," he said.

Retail food stores are in fierce price competition throughout Canada, driven by the expansion of Wal-Mart into the food business. Superstore's parent company, Loblaws, had poor financial results in the last quarter, and has promised its shareholders to cut costs.