No more expensive to eat local, but the gap is widening

Buying local has been on everyone’s lips since the pandemic. But with the cost of living constantly rising, can we still afford to choose Quebec products at the grocery store? A study conducted by Dalhousie University reveals that the local option is often good for the wallet… But not as much as before.

The results of the study were released Thursday by Aliments du Québec. Conducted last fall, it aimed to determine whether the prices of Quebec grocery products were more or less competitive compared to those from outside. Result: the local solution is more advantageous or equivalent for 55.6% of the product categories analyzed.

These results are encouraging, but less than they were a few months earlier. During the first phase of the study¹conducted in the winter of 2022, local products were competitive in 70.8% of categories.

The categories of local products that have become less advantageous are mainly found in the fish and meat section as well as in fruits and vegetables.

What explains this drop?

“We don’t know exactly why the percentage dropped,” said the study’s lead researcher, Sylvain Charlebois, of Dalhousie University. But we believe that inflation has changed the game because it was a rather special market last fall. »

Recall that in October 2022, food inflation reached 11%.

“Clients have become more financially conscientious because of the increase in interest rates,” explains Sylvain Charlebois. So, generally speaking, we saw that people were spending less on groceries. According to the researcher, the grocery stores may have promoted certain foreign products to retain their customers.

This drop does not seem to worry the president and CEO of the Quebec Food Processing Council, Sylvie Cloutier. “It’s not disastrous as a decline, she notes. Especially since the impacts of inflation were much stronger in the fall than in the winter of 2022. So it’s a good sign that Quebec products have remained cheaper or equivalent in most cases. »

Buying local remains a good option

Although the proportion of local products at competitive prices is lower than in winter 2022, it remains the majority. And this, even in an inflationary context.

The director general of Aliments du Québec, Isabelle Roy, invites consumers to monitor promotions and the seasonality of products from here. These aspects could not be included in the study to maintain a reliable sample, but certainly contribute to making certain local products more accessible on an ad hoc basis.

“Consumers often associate foods from Quebec with local products such as terrines and other delicatessen products,” says the director of Aliments du Québec. However, they are present in all food categories, and as studies show, they are often an economical option.

She hopes that in light of these studies carried out in the winter and fall of 2022, we can finally get rid of the myth that eating local is always more expensive.