Grocery prices in Canada increased an average of 4.7 per cent in November compared to a year earlier.
That’s according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) released by Statistics Canada on Monday, which measured consumer inflation at 2.2 per cent overall, and was unchanged from the same inflation report in October.
The agency adds this was the biggest spike in food inflation since December 2023, and was up from 3.4 per cent in October.
Food categories that got particularly more expensive in November included fresh fruit, especially berries, as well as beef and coffee.
“The Consumer Price Index held steady in November, but this plateau won’t translate into much relief for Canadian wallets. Grocery aisles continue to tell a vastly different story, as anyone who has purchased beef, coffee or fresh fruit in recent months can attest,” said Shannon Terrell, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet Canada in a statement.
“When simply putting a holiday meal on the table feels like an insurmountable budget hurdle, Canadians will need to use every tool at their disposal to make the holiday magic happen.”
Statistics Canada says higher beef prices were partly the result of lower cattle inventories in North America.
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Coffee prices got a jolt from a combination of poor weather in growing regions and American tariffs on coffee-producing countries like Brazil.
In mid-November, U.S. President Donald Trump removed tariffs on some products including coffee, beef and some fruits amid pressure from consumers hit with higher prices.
“The increase in food inflation was driven by a combination of supply side constraints, including severe weather conditions,” said senior economist Claire Fan at Royal Bank of Canada.
“And despite Canadian importers not paying tariffs themselves, prices in Canada could still be impacted by U.S. exporters passing on their related cost increases along food manufacturing supply chains. Prices for refined coffee, for example, are rising because of U.S. tariffs on coffee-producing countries.”
Last week, the Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged, citing positive economic gauges on the economy, including inflation as well as the job market and GDP.
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A separate report released earlier in December forecast consumers could pay $1,000 more for groceries in 2026.
Increases in food prices were somewhat offset by cooling inflation in other areas, including gasoline prices, which fell 7.8 per cent in November compared with a year earlier.
Hotel prices were also lower in November in some areas compared with a year earlier, especially in Ontario, according to Statistics Canada.
“The largest contributor to the (overall) lower prices was Ontario (-20.2 per cent), partially due to a base-year effect from a swift monthly increase in November 2024 (+11.0 per cent), which coincided with a series of high-profile concerts in Toronto,” said Statistics Canada in the report.
In November 2024, Taylor Swift played six sold-out shows in Toronto, which saw hotel prices increase dramatically to meet the high demand from fans.
Canada's food insecurity problem
Canada’s affordability crisis has shown itself in the rising use of food banks, with a report from October 2025 showing monthly food bank visits have doubled since 2019.
The same report from Food Banks Canada found Alberta and the territories saw monthly visits to food banks so far this year climb more than 20 per cent compared to 2024.
The Bank of Canada said in November that the best way to solve the affordability crisis is to increase Canada’s productivity so incomes of workers can rise to meet where prices are at.
Mike von Massow, a professor of food, agriculture and resource economics at the University of Guelph, says the problem is not the availability of food, but the ability to afford the food that is available.
“Food insecurity in this country is not driven by food availability. It is driven by income, by low incomes, right? With the exception of perhaps some northern communities and some very rural communities, we have food available for people. It’s just the people who can’t afford it are buying less and having to make hard choices,” says Von Massow.
“Productivity and wage adjustments are a great way of addressing that affordability gap. Because if food prices go up 10 per cent, but my income goes up 10 per cent, I’m at a wash to a large degree. But we haven’t seen those wage increases keep pace with the food price increases.”
Von Massow says when it comes to most grocery stores, “their hands are tied” when it comes to bringing prices down.
“We always love to bash the big retailers, but to a significant degree, they aren’t driving these prices up — their hands are tied,” says von Massow.
“If you look at operating income as a percentage of revenue, grocery stores remain right around six to 6.5 per cent. So even if they had taken zero profits, we still would have seen prices go up in the year.”
Von Massow says the best way grocery stores can help moderate some of these price increases is to offer consumers more choice.
“The benefit of having these large grocers is the wide amount of selection that they provide us,” says Von Massow.
“So that if lettuce is going up in price and we’re willing to switch away from lettuce, then perhaps we will use some Canadian beets or other storable things that haven’t gone up as much in price.”
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