Grocery Prices In Canada Keep Climbing & Here's What Food Is Costing You Extra These Days

Grocery prices in Canada are a hot topic as we head into the summer months, and many of us continue to feel the pinch of rising food prices across the board.

Just days ahead of the much anticipated Canada grocery rebate payment that's set to put money into the pockets of more than 11 million people, the country has released new data to show just how much more we're paying for groceries and food compared to this time last year.

These new numbers came out on the same day the Competition Bureau of Canada released a report titled "Canada Needs More Grocery Competition," which gave a detailed explanation of how grocery prices in this country could get cheaper if the industry wasn't dominated by the three main giants of Loblaws, Metro, and Sobeys.

"The price Canadians pay for groceries has been rising fast," reads a section of the report, which put some of the blame on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and supply chain disruptions, but the competition bureau added, "We have also seen a longer-term trend that pre-dates those events, of Canada’s largest grocers increasing the amount they make on food sales."

If that report wasn't clear enough, some of this data on grocery prices in Canada might be, as they reveal just how much more expensive certain grocery aisles have gotten in just the last 12 months.

Overall, according to Statistics Canada, the price of food was up 8.3% in May of 2023 compared to a year earlier. Grocery store food prices were up 9%, and restaurant food prices rose 6.8%.

Here are some of the food items that have seen the highest price increases since May of 2022.

1. Meat: Up 6.3% overall, with the cost of fresh or frozen chicken and poultry up nearly 10%.
2. Dairy products: Up 7.5%, with the cost of butter up by 10%. Ice cream products are up by 8.7%.
3. Eggs: Up 8.2%
4. Bakery products: Up 15%, with bread, cookies, crackers, cereal, and rice up between 11% and 16%.
5. Pasta: Up 18.5%
6. Fresh fruit: Up 5.7%, but the cost of apples is up 10.6%, and oranges 14.7%
7. Fresh vegetables: Up 8.9%, with tomatoes up 10.3% and lettuce up by 15.9%.
8. Edible fats and oils: Up 20.3%.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.