Researchers believe food inflation in Canada may have peaked

Researchers at Dalhousie University believe the food inflation rate in Canada may have already peaked.

Statistics Canada reported the rate was 8.8 per cent in June, which is still higher than the general inflation rate.

Janet Music is the Research Program Coordinator at the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

"In the summertime, prices tend to deflate a little bit as we start growing our own fruits and vegetables and people start diversifying where they're getting their food. Farmers' markets, roadside stands, direct from producers. You expect to see some deflation in food prices, and that's what we're really seeing here.

"Of course, if you separate those numbers, we have 7.1 per cent inflation attributed to restaurants and still 9.4 per cent, which is quite high, at the grocery store. If we kind of split it out like that, you're still seeing quite a bit of inflationary conditions at grocery but moving in the right direction for sure."

Music commented on other factors that may help keep prices down.

"Certainly the advent of the growing season and into the fall with the harvest is going to decrease prices and I think as we move hopefully away from the COVID-19 pandemic, that we're going to see more predictability when it comes to keeping people in transportation and shipping safe."