These foods cost more in Canada, despite inflation rate slowdown

Inflation for goods in Canada is cooling but prices for food remain high, Statistics Canada's latest report shows.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February was at 5.2 per cent year-over-year, a decrease from January's 5.9 per cent year-over-year increase.

"This was the largest deceleration in the headline CPI since April 2020," the StatCan report reads.

Energy reflected the cooling as prices fell 0.6 per cent year-over-year. Gasoline prices are leading the drop, StatCan says, with a 4.7 per cent difference year-over-year — "the first yearly decline since January 2021."

"Inflation is cooling more than what was typically expected," David George-Cosh, BNN Bloomberg reporter, told CTV News Channel on Tuesday. "But when you drill down into some of the details, it's unlikely to really convince Canadians that the worst is really behind us."

Despite the overall signs inflation is decreasing, Canadians are not seeing this reflected at grocery stores, where food prices rose 10.6 per cent year-over-year in February. This is a slight decrease from January, which saw a 11.4 per cent year-over-year increase.

FOOD PRICES REMAIN HIGH

February marks the seventh consecutive month of double-digit food inflation, StatCan says.

This pressure is largely due to supply constraints from extreme weather in some regions and higher costs of animal feed, energy and packaging materials.

Pasta products continue to increase in price, with a 23.1 per cent year-over-year difference in February. This is an upward trend from January, which had a year-over-year increase of 21.1 per cent.

Fruit juice had the largest increase in price from January to February 2023, data from StatCan shows. In January, the product had a year-over-year difference of 5.2 per cent; this rose to 15.7 per cent year-over-year in February.

According to StatCan, the quick rise in the cost of fruit juice is led by the increased price of orange juice specifically.

"The supply of oranges has been impacted by citrus greening disease and climate-related events, such as Hurricane Ian," the CPI report reads.

William Huggins, lecturer of corporate finance and business economics, explained supply chains are under pressure from many areas.

"We've had, for instance, problems with avian flu...There are problems with African swine fever in China, we've had trouble getting enough employees to come back post pandemic with their steel supply chains," Huggins told CTV's Your Morning on Wednesday. "We've seen this not just in Canada, but also in the United States as well. So rather than people thinking it's very much a homegrown problem, it's much more of a North American logistic problem."

Oranges on their own have not increased quite as dramatically between January and February of this year. According to the data, in January oranges had a year-over-year increase of 14.1 per cent, which rose to 15.1 per cent year-over-year in February.

Similarly, apples rose in price year-over-year to 16.6 per cent in February, a 4.5 per cent increase from January.

Some areas did see prices slowing, StatCan said.

Meat products decreased to 6.2 per cent year-over-year, though this is a smaller decrease than in January.

But Canadians aren't seeing decreases in all types of meat.

Fresh or frozen poultry remained high, as StatCan pegged the year-over-year increase at 10.7 per cent in February, a slight increase from January.

Fish, seafood and other marine products increased by 1 per cent from January's year-over-year marker to 7.4 per cent year-over-year in February.

Fresh or frozen beef saw a reduction in February, with a year-over-year increase of 2.4 per cent compared to January's 3.7 per cent difference.

Buyers of some types of produce are seeing a cooling effect as well, including the costs of lettuce and tomatoes.

Lettuce in January rose to 32.8 per cent year-over-year, but dropped the next month to 20.2 per cent compared to February 2022.

Tomatoes in January had a 21.9 per cent year-over-year increase, which dropped to 7.1 per cent year-over-year in February.

STUDY SHOWS MISTAKES ON RECEIPTS

Many Canadians are now acutely aware of how much food items cost, so they can ensure they are not paying more, but a new study shows two-thirds (67 per cent) of people have seen a mistake on their grocery receipts in the last year.

Dalhousie University's Agri-Food Analytics Lab polled 5,525 respondents.

According to the survey, 78.5 per cent of those who noted a mistake reported the most common error was that the price at the cash register was not the same price displayed on the shelf. About one-third of respondents said the daily discount was not applied and a total of 31.4 per cent claimed the cashier scanned an item too many times.

A majority of people said they check receipts for mistakes as they exit the store, before getting home. However, the survey notes not all Canadians have the habit of checking for mistakes; only half said they always check, while 3.3 per cent never do.

"As for frequency of mistakes, 79.2 per cent of respondents claim that they find at least no mistakes on their receipts, at least 10 per cent of the time," the press release reads. "A total of 15.2 per cent will find at least one mistake on their receipt, 25 per cent of the time."  

Food inflation tracker

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All data is from Statistics Canada's consumer price index tracker. Data updates once per month. See release schedule for planned updates.

Note: data for some specific grocery items are available only nationally, and are not available by province. Can't see the interactive above? Click here.