High food prices will continue next year, said Sylvain Charlebois when he released the 2023 Food Price Report.
For a family with two teenagers, food will cost about $16,300 which is more than $1,000 more than this year.
And this year the costs went up by 10.1 per cent which was more than Charlebois predicted. He said people criticized his seven per cent estimate released a year ago as way too high.
"We're not expecting prices to drop, but we are expecting the food and inflation rate to to stabilize somewhat" in the second half of next year, he said.
Supply chain bottlenecks are starting to move again, and the price of gasoline has fallen precipitously, which makes it cheaper to ship food across the country. On the other hand, a slowing economy could push down the loonie, which will hit grocery shoppers hard since so much of what Canadians eat comes from outside the country, especially in the winter months.
The Food Report advises shoppers to use food apps to scour for sales, clip coupons to be on the lookout for bargains, and always keep an eye out for price cuts on food that's about to go past its best before date.
"You're going to have to work for your deals," Charlebois said. "You're going to have to work for those discounts."
The Waterloo Region Food Bank said that last year a $1 donation bought three meals and now it will buy only two.
