An average family of four can expect to spend more than $300 per week on food this year, according to Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab and a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University.
Food prices will be even higher than they were in 2022, with a predicted 5–7 percent increase this year, mostly affecting vegetables, dairy, and meat, Charlebois told The Epoch Times. An average family of four—a man and woman aged 31–50, a boy aged 14–18, and a girl aged 9–13—will spend $16,288.41 on food this year.
This is an increase of up to $1065.60 from what families spent in 2022, which was a little over $15,000 on food for the year. A typical family spends 16 percent of their total expenses on food, says Charlebois.
He said it’s not expected that prices will decrease for most food items for the foreseeable future. For the last 12 months, the food inflation rate has exceeded general inflation.
“It’s really a concern. There are two necessities of life: shelter and food. Those are the two things people need in order to survive, so obviously higher prices are a big concern,” he said.
“This is probably the most expensive groceries have ever been, but that’s the impact of inflation.”
He said 2023 is going to be another challenging year, especially in the first six months.
Food Affordability
For 13 years, Dalhousie University, the University of Guelph, the University of Saskatchewan, and the University of British Columbia have produced an annual forecast of grocery price trends in Canada’s Food Price Report.Last year, the program forecast a price increase of 5–7 percent. However, food costs ultimately exceeded predictions, with an increase of over 10 percent. According to Charlebois, food prices have not increased to this extent in Canada for over 40 years, and 2022 was the worst year on record for price increases.
The report looks at nine key categories rather than individual foods; for example, it predicts prices for bakery, dairy, fruits, meat, restaurants, seafood, and vegetables. The 2023 report forecasts that overall food prices will increase by 5–7 percent. Vegetables will increase the most, by 6–8 percent, and bakery, dairy, and meat are predicted to increase from 5–7 percent.
The increase is attributed to supply chain issues during COVID-19, labour shortages, and inflation.
Charlebois sits on the board of Second Harvest in Toronto, Canada’s largest food bank, which he said is also feeling the impact. “Traffic has gone up, and we are having a harder time getting food,” he says.
As prices have gone up, the grocery stores that typically donate their surplus to the food bank are donating less, as they are more careful with inventories and how they manage their ordering, he explains.
Charlebois also says grocers this year “have to be careful, because their relationship with the public has changed.”
He says Canadian consumers are skeptical and “believe that they are being gouged” by grocery stores. Although his research team did not see any evidence of abuse by grocers over the last several years, he suggests grocers have to work on “optics,” especially as this year, grocery executives received record bonuses.
The report also notes that the 2022 HungerCount, published by Food Banks Canada, stated that in 2022 the use of food banks increased by 15 percent.
