Canadian food prices are surpassing general inflation. There was a 3.5% rise in grocery prices in August alone, while general inflation rose 1.6% points last month.This is according to the Food Professor, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, who operates an Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL), who stated the GST/HST break was a definite contributing factor to the increase.The break occurred from December 14, 2024, to February 15, 2025During the tax break, "I was concerned about opportunity pricing, which means that whenever a tax vanishes for a while, typically you see prices cover that spread," Charlebois says. "Then when taxes come back, they're slapped on higher prices."The Food Professor elaborates further in the video below...."That's what we saw in 2007 and 2008 when the GST was reduced by 1% twice.""We were expecting inflation to drop, but inflation actually went up.""Why?""Because, well, retailers were motivated thinking, 'we'll just take over that 1%, essentially'," he states.The Food Professor also discussed the rising costs of meat, specifically the high price of beef.."Demand is still strong. It's just people aren't buying as much in volume, I guess they're a little bit more careful and because prices are really high.""And so there's a higher conversion rate between beef and pork and beef and chicken as well, because people are looking for animal proteins.""In fact, you can see that the entire food industry is recognizing this as an opportunity because you're starting to see proteins in all sorts of things, even coffee or breakfast cereals.""Why?""Because animal proteins are becoming more expensive for 40% of the money you spend at the grocery store is spent on animal proteins, like dairy and meat," Charlebois says..Want to know more about the rising unaffordability of Canadian food prices? Click here to watch the clip.
