The 11th annual edition of Canada’s Food Price Report released Tuesday morning forecasts an overall food price increase of 3 to 5 per cent for 2021 – the highest predicted increase ever.
The most significant increases are predicted for meat at 4.5 to 6.5 per cent, bakery at 3.5 to 5.5 per cent and vegetables at 4.5 to 6.5 per cent.
PhD student in the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences at Dalhousie University and co-author of the report, Alyssa Gerhardt, says they’re expecting that an increase in “wheat futures” will impact prices in the bakery section.
She says meat tends to be a pretty economically volatile industry as it is, and impacts of COVID-19 will pose challenges to the industry. As for vegetables, Gerhardt says the low Canadian dollar is impacting the purchasing power for imports.
Gerhardt says the price increases are quite concerning, but there are some positives to take away including the way the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our relationship with food.
She explains that more Canadians started to garden, an increase most prevalent in Atlantic Canada. Further, Gerhardt says they’ve also seen that Canadians, because they’re staying at home, are cooking more meals from scratch, involving their families in meal prep, and eating together more often.
