A new survey by food price experts in Canada has revealed that many Canadians are changing the way they shop due to higher food prices.
The survey, conducted in fall 2021 by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab and Caddle, says that 86% of surveyed Canadians believed food prices had risen in the last six months and that many respondents are using weekly flyers and coupons more often and changing what they buy to help make up the difference.
One food item in particular stands out, as 51.8% of the 10,005 survey respondents said they’d noticed meat products had increased in price the most over the past six months. As a result, 49% of Canadians who answered said they’d reduced the amount of meat they’d bought over the past six months.
The report notes that according to Statistics Canada, the price of meat had increased by about 10% over the same six-month period.
In December 2020, the lab predicted that food prices would increase by about 5% over the course of 2021. Speaking to Narcity in August 2021, the lab’s director, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, said he was “comfortable” with the forecast so far.