A new report says consumers may find some relief at the checkout next year. Researchers at the University of Guelph have issued the latest Food Price Index, an annual report that examines Canadian retail food prices, which also includes restaurant prices.
One of the researchers, Sylvain Charlebois, a professor and lead author of the Food Price Index, says greater competition is the main reason. “The Canadian retail market saw very significant changes in 2013,” says Charlebois, who is associate dean of research and graduate studies in Guelph’s College of Management and Economics.
Charlebois says that in last year’s report the researchers predicted that new competition in the Canadian food retail industry would create a price war and eventually drive down food prices. Charlebois adds that the researchers underestimated what impact competition would have on the market in Canada.
The researchers predict general food expenditures to increase by between 0.3 and 2.6 per cent in 2014.
For 2014, the report predicts that fruit and nuts will be up 0.6 to 1.2 percent and vegetables will be up 1.4 to 2.1 percent.
Restaurant food prices are expected to increase by no more than two per cent.
The index also predicts that major agricultural industry changes, such as the recent closing of the Heinz plant in Leamington, Ont., and new policies will have insignificant effects on food prices.
