April food costs ease, but grocery prices keep rising across Canada

Like every month, Statistics Canada has released their monthly consumer price measurements — with food costs actually easing to 3.5% in April, despite overall consumer prices rising by 2.8%.This comes after a food inflation rate of 4% in March compared to a year earlier.In spite of this, in April, food purchased in stores, like grocery stores, increased by 3.8%.Not to mention gasoline prices, which increased by almost 29% from a year ago, and are not included in the overall consumer price inflation rate for the month..As the food professor, or Sylvain Charlebois, who runs an agri-food lab at Dalhousie University, points out on his Substack, this is still well above Canada's overall inflation rate.In fact, food inflation has outpaced all other types of inflation in Canada since March 2025. Among the food products with the highest inflation rate, in April, tomatoes were the highest inflation at 21%, coffee second, at 15.5%, and fresh and frozen beef in third at 12.5%.Charlebois adds that statistics can actually underestimate what people are experiencing when they're buying groceries..Even though the overall inflation rate decreased slightly from a month prior, many of the most frequently bought products continue to rise sharply."Perception matters in food economics because grocery shopping is one of the few inflationary experiences consumers physically confront every week," Charlebois stated.And of course, different provinces have separate food inflation rates, so in determining who bore the brunt of this food inflation in April, the Western Standard has compiled a list from highest to lowest food inflation rates by province. .1. ManitobaThis province had it the worse, with a 4.8% food inflation rate in April in comparison with a year earlier, and only a 0.1% increase from March.2. Saskatchewan & AlbertaLuckily not first, but not much better — Saskatchewan and Alberta tied for the second highest food inflation in April, both with a 4.4% food inflation rate.For Alberta, food inflation dropped by 0.4% from March, and for Saskatchewan it dropped by 0.1%.3. OntarioOntario had a 3.9% food inflation rate compared to a year earlier.However, in contrast to March, they experienced a 0.9% increase.4. New Brunswick (NB) & QuebecNB and Quebec saw a 3.5% year-over-year food inflation increase in April. For NB, this was a 0.6% increase since March, and a 0.5% increase for Quebec..5. British Columbia (BC)A close fifth for food inflation, BC only saw a 3.4% rise in food inflation in April compared to a year earlier, a decrease of 0.2% from March.6. Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) & Nova Scotia (NS)Both experienced a 3% increase, with NL's food inflation increasing by 0.2% in March, and a 0.4% increase from a month earlier for NS. .7. Prince Edward Island (PEI)PEI experienced a piece of the pie — but a smaller piece in comparison with the national average — having a 2.1% food inflation increase in April, down 0.7% from March.Charlebois also points out Canada's food inflation has been around longer than readers may think. In fact, it began during the global financial crisis in 2008, outpacing general inflation ever since, with "many households finally feeling the cumulative effects all at once," Charlebois wrote.

April food costs ease, but grocery prices keep rising across Canada

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