With food prices at a five-year high, the average Canadian family can expect to pay nearly $1,000 more for food this year<\/p>\n
Published Dec 04, 2025 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 2\u00a0hours ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 3 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n OTTAWA \u2014 With food prices at a five-year high, the average Canadian family can expect to pay nearly $1,000 more for food next year.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n That\u2019s according to this year\u2019s Canada Food Price Report<\/a>, an annual snapshot of food trends, produced by the Agri-Foods Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n While meat saw, and will continue to see, stark increases in cost, Dr. Sylvian Charlebois, the report\u2019s lead author, told the Toronto Sun he was pleasantly surprised at how fruits and vegetable prices maintained their composure \u2014 falling 0.9% in 2025 instead of increasing the three-to-five per cent forecast.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were spared, thinking that the \u2018buy Canadian\u2019 or anti-American movement was going to hurt Canadians, but it didn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of the dollar not really being a story \u2014 it was pretty stable. It did weaken a little bit, but it wasn\u2019t really a big story, so that helped our importers\u2019 buying power throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n Your Midday Sun<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Skyrocketing beef prices expected to bring chicken along for the ride<\/p>\n Looking to the year ahead, chicken prices are set to increase substantially, thanks to increase consumer demand due to the high cost of beef \u2014 the price of which skyrocketed in 2025.<\/p>\n While beef prices rose 19% in the first quarter of 2025 alone and then stabilized, they\u2019re still 23% higher than the national average.<\/p>\n That, according to the University of Saskatchewan\u2019s Dr. Stuart Smyth, can be attributed to nearly a decade of drought conditions in Canada\u2019s cattle pastures, shrinking the size of Canada\u2019s beef herd to levels not seen since the late 1980s.<\/p>\n New beef import partnerships from Mexico and Australia are expected to lessen the burden, but conditions are expected to remain unsteady until at least 2027.<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Meat prices increased 7.2% over 2025, higher than what was forecast.<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Interprovincial trade carveouts need to include food, restaurants urge<\/p>\n <\/a> Government report predicts 2040 dystopia: Collapsed economy, hunting for food<\/p>\n <\/a>Food insecurity continues to be dire problem<\/p>\n Roughly one quarter of Canadian households are considered food insecure, the study said, and overall food prices are set to increase by between four and six per cent over the course of 2026 \u2014 and currently sit at 27% higher than they were five years ago.<\/p>\n That means the average family of four is expected to spend $17,571.79 on food in 2026 \u2014 that\u2019s a $996.63 increase from last year.<\/p>\n Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are expected to experience food increases above national averages in 2026.<\/p>\n Advertisement 5<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Trade tension adding to uncertainty<\/p>\n Ongoing trade tensions between Canada and the United States will also impact food prices in the coming year, despite not wreaking nearly as much havoc this year as expected.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was rocky from March to September in Canada with counter-tariffs, we were very concerned that taxing food coming into Canada was going to be a factor,\u201d Charlebois said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut now we\u2019re finishing off the year on a good note, as both administrations, the U.S. and Canada, are recognizing that food is different.\u201d<\/p>\n As soon as you slap tariffs on goods, Charlebois said, you end up compromising your own nation\u2019s food affordability \u2014 something he said even President Donald Trump more-or-less admitted to last month when he ended sweeping tariffs on numerous food imports,<\/a> including coffee, bananas, beef and tomatoes.<\/p>\n Advertisement 6<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Breaking down interprovincial trade barriers, Charlebois said, will also go a long way to impacting affordability \u2014 and that includes supply management.<\/p>\n \u201cOttawa has done its work, it\u2019s job \u2014 it\u2019s now up to the provinces to do the heavy lifting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe estimated that if you eliminate trade barriers between provinces, and of course, that would include supply management \u2026 so if you address the big elephant in the room and everything else, you\u2019re looking at savings between $300 to $500 per Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the 16th edition of the annual look at food prices \u2014 a study conducted in collaboration with Saint Mary\u2019s University, the University of Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton University, the University of Guelph, the University of Alberta, Universit\u00e9 Laval and the University of Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n bpassifiume@postmedia.com<\/a> Article content<\/p>\n Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links NewsCanada With food prices at a five-year high, the average Canadian family can expect to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-168687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Inflation_Canada_cost_of_living_affordability_4x3.jpg\")
Getty Images\/iStockphotoArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.1.2\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tsun.svg\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n![\"opening](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/20.1.2\/websites\/images\/newsletters\/icon-sun-middaySun.svg\"\/){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n![\"Kelly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/kelly.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/poorguy-e1745265718749.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
X: @bryanpassifiume<\/a><\/p>\n