CALGARY - David Krygier has been waiting for a 40-foot shipping container for nearly a month.

The container, full of dried banana snacks processed in Vietnam for Calgary company Oh! Naturals Flavoured Snacks Inc., arrived at the docks at the Port of Metro Vancouver on February 22.

Normally, it would be picked up promptly by a trucker and hauled to a warehouse before being distributed to grocery stores across Canada.

But Krygier, general manager for Oh! Naturals, said the container is instead stranded — thanks to an ongoing truckers’ strike that has crippled operations at the port and is estimated to be affecting $885 million of cargo each week.

“We have commitments to our distributors, who have commitments to their retailers for our product,” Krygier said. “It’s nerve-racking, especially since we have no clear idea when this is going to end.”

Unionized truckers at Canada’s largest port went on strike earlier this month, joining a thousand non-union drivers who walked off the job in February. The dispute has largely focused on issues relating to pay, including the truckers’ wages and the amount of unpaid time they spend waiting for cargo at container terminals.

Hopes for an immediate resolution to the strike faded over the weekend, when talks between federal and provincial government officials and drivers reached a stalemate.

Now, there are growing fears that a prolonged strike will lead to increased costs for importers and suppliers, and empty spaces on store shelves for consumers — including those in Alberta.

“We know it is (going to impact consumers),” said Garett Greekas, sales co-ordinator at Calgary-based grocery importer Elite International Foods, a supplier for more than 200 grocery stores in Alberta. “We just cannot get product. A large percentage of our product comes through there. And we don’t carry that much inventory, so it does affect us fairly quickly.”

Ruth Snowden, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association, said the situation is dire because the cargo backlog is building up to the point where the ocean terminals around the Port of Metro Vancouver are starting to get full. She said that means steamship lines are going to have to start diverting their cargo.

“They’re going to have to deliver it to Seattle, Tacoma, or Portland instead, and then how do we get those goods back to Canada?” Snowden said. “It’s going to drive delays getting goods to shelves, everywhere in the country.”

Major retailer Canadian Tire said it has already begun the process of diverting cargo to alternative ports of discharge.

“Canadian Tire’s priority is to ensure our customers in Calgary and across the country have access to the products they need in our stores,” said Canadian Tire associate vice-president Gary Fast in an emailed statement. “To date, impacts to our stores have been minimal due to the inventory we maintain at our distribution centres; however we are experiencing delays from our normal lead time which could have inventory implications in the weeks and months to come.”

If the strike wears on, it could also impact Alberta’s agriculture industry. An estimated 543,619 metric tonnes of Canadian meat exports went through the Port of Vancouver last year, and about 58,000 tonnes of that — 11 per cent — was boxed beef.

“We’re anxious and we’re concerned,” said John Masswohl, director of government and international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. “What we’re hearing from the packers is there’s starting to be a lot of difficulty with product moving through the port.”