Everyday foods are becoming increasingly unaffordable, the latest consumer price index shows, as inflation stagnates and the rise in food prices slows somewhat.
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“Normally, when a product is made too expensive, a substitute becomes popular. But there, the substitutes are also made expensive,” observes agronomist and economist Pascal Thériault of McGill University.
This is what is happening in the case of margarine, the price of which is up 40.4%, and butter (+20.2%).
“Because the price of butter is high and continues to rise, people have gone to the cheaper product, margarine, which creates pressure on the supply of margarine, which pushes the price up. But there are no other substitutes,” says the expert.
Other products are on the rise, notes Statistics Canada: pasta (+44.8%), lettuce (+30.2%), rice and rice-based mixtures (+14.7%), soup (+18.4%) and eggs (+13.8%).
All in all, inflation reached 6.9% in October, exactly the same figure as in September. Food prices jumped 11% in October from 11.4% in September.
Gasoline and mortgage interest costs were among the fastest rising in October: 17.8% more expensive at the pump and 11.4% more at the bank.
Few encouraging signs
We are entitled to wonder where all this will stop when we see the price of pasta doubling in one year.
Some experts are more optimistic than others.
“There are encouraging signs for 2023,” said Sylvain Charlebois, who is director of Dalhousie University’s Agrifood Analytical Sciences Laboratory.
Pascal Thériault, agronomist and economist
The price of containers is falling, he points out, as is the cost of transportation.
Others are less certain that grocery prices will stop rising.
“We were spoiled for a long time. Prices may recover, but for now, people can’t do much other than make choices and think carefully about their purchases,” thinks Pascal Thériault.
Invest your time, the only choice
And for that, you have to invest time. The economist gives the example of ready-to-eat, these meal boxes sold by Cook it or Goodfood.
“It was nice for a while, but the price has risen so much that people are abandoning them to reinvest their time in buying food,” explains Pascal Thériault.
Huge leaps over the past year
- Rice and rice mixes: +14.7%
- Soups: +18.4%
- Lettuce : +30.2%
- Margarines: +40.4%
- Pasta : +44.8%
Source: Statistics Canada