Food products much more expensive than inflation

Jackson Jackson20/10/2022

The price of certain food products is rising much faster than what Statistics Canada says. If the agency is talking about 11.4%, The newspaper finds that it is often more than double.

• Read also – Recession: « it’s on people’s minds », says Champagne

File photo, Julien McEvoy

Customers circulate in a grocery store in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.

The latest consumer price index report, released today, shows inflation at 6.9% in September, down 0.1% from August.

For grocery store prices, it’s more like 11.4%, says Statistics Canada. This is the largest increase since 1981, and it could well be higher than that.

Denis Landry, Director of the Prestige Group

“Food inflation is a bit underestimated. It takes time, going up, you must never forget that,” explains Denis Landry, who manages Groupe Prestige.

Mr. Landry handles cereal purchases, for example, for many Quebec processors in the bakery and pastry sector.

« When you’re an industrialist who sells in large chains, it can take 4 to 6 months to pass a rise, » he says.

More increases?

If Statistics Canada calculates that cereal products have jumped 17.9% in one year, Denis Landry observes that a bushel of wheat is trading 65% more expensive than 24 months ago.

Other increases in the price of food sold in grocery stores are therefore “very likely” to come.

In addition to cereals, Statistics Canada indicates that the increase is 16.4% for coffee and tea, 14.8% for bakery products, 12.7% for fresh fruit and 11.8% for fresh vegetables.

But when we analyze the price of certain products for 12 months, we find that we are more in the order of 30 to 50% increase.

Worse than they say

We did the exercise using figures from the Glouton app database. The prices of all products quoted are those offered during promotions.

Over the past 12 months, Kraft 1Kg Peanut Butter has risen 42% from $3.77 to $6.49.

It’s even worse for budget-sized medium-lean ground beef, which retailed for $2.99 a pound a year ago and can’t be found below $5.99 a pound today. .

In the case of pasta, it is rather 36% increase. For POM tortillas, the increase is 21%.

All of these products are the ones most often found in flyers, says Glouton boss Jean-François Gagné Bérubé.

Listen to Yves Daoust’s business segment broadcast live daily at 9 a.m. 35 via :

“For some products, the upside, even on specials, is very visible,” he says.

A worrying situation when you know that discounts have become rarer for 12 months.

This is especially the case for fruits, vegetables, frozen foods, prepared foods and baked goods, according to figures from NielsenIQ Canada.

And this is a first since the economic crisis of 2008.

►For 10 consecutive months, the price of food has increased faster than all the other elements included in the consumer price index. The difference in September is very pronounced: 6.9% for inflation and 11.7% for grocery prices.

Kraft Peanut Butter 1 kg: 42%