The Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AFAL) at Dalhousie University says Canadians are spending more money on food.
According to the research institution, 81 per cent of Canadians identified food as the expense that increased the most in the past year.
In its 2026 forecast, the lab predicted a four to six per cent increase in expenses. For a family of four, this means an annual uptick of more than $1,000.
Sylvain Charlebois, AFAL’s director, says that this has an impact on what Canadians choose to purchase at the supermarket, moving away from higher-priced items such as meat.
“We are starting to see a shift towards different diets like vegetarianism, pescetarianism, and flexitarianism as well. That’s becoming more popular in Canada.”
He adds that this shift is very likely here to stay, as he does not see any decrease in grocery prices in the near future.
“It is not going to stop. I mean, we actually do believe that food inflation bottomed in March, but now we are expecting food inflation to start rising again, unfortunately, due to energy costs and the conflict in Iran.”
Charlebois’ assessment is backed by a recent StatsCan report that says, compared to last year, fresh produce went up about eight per cent.
The government agency says that it is the biggest increase of its kind in three years.
It explains that the increase is mostly due to lower imports from other countries and higher energy prices due to the conflict in Iran.
However, Canadians are finding ways to save money by doing their homework.
“They have discovered new stores, especially independent stores,” Charlebois explained.
“People are naturally drawn to major grocers, major outlets, but they are independents that actually do offer some good deals, and Canadians have actually noticed.”
He says some independent retailers are accessing rejected products from major brands at 10 to 25 per cent of the original price and are able to offer major discounts to consumers.
– With files from John Ackermann.