A food supply and price analyst says governments need to talk to suppliers and producers to find out why grocery items that are governed by supply management are rising excessively in price.

Sylvain Charlebois of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University was responding to whole chicken prices in the metro region that recently surpassed the $5 a pound threshold.

He says items governed by supply management should not see food inflation exceed 3 per cent a year, but this year, chicken is flirting with a 10 per cent increase over last year.

He understands that costs are rising for all suppliers, but governments need to find out what’s happening.

“It’s not acceptable because supply management is a very important food security policy in Canada, and if it’s failing, we need to know the answers as to why the prices are going up. That’s the ultimate metric for all of us. So, we support supply management, but in return we expect quality products at a reasonable price.”