Fruit, Vegetable Prices Soar In Canada: “If You Insist On Eating Tomatoes, You’re Going To Pay For It”

Earlier this month, we documented the surging price of fresh produce in Canada, where the plunging loonie is creating a nightmare for shoppers in grocery aisles across the country.

Because Canada imports more than three quarters of its fresh fruits and vegetables, the inexorable decline of the Canadian dollar has driven up prices on everything from cucumbers to cauliflower to tomatoes, and as we showed via a series of tweets from incredulous supermarket shoppers, Canadians are not pleased.

“Three bucks. For a cucumber,” one shopper wrote.

“Had a similar reaction when I saw the price of cauliflower,” another said. “Welcome to the future..”

Yes, “welcome to the future” Canada, because with oil prices set to remain in the doldrums for the foreseeable future, any long-lasting respite for the loonie is probably not in the cards, despite BOC governor Stephen Poloz’s efforts to keep the currency anchored by eschewing the rate cuts needed to keep what remains of the country’s oil patch in business.

On Friday, we got confirmation that all Canadians, not just those in the deep north, are indeed suffering under double-digit inflation at the supermarket when Statistics Canada said the price of fresh fruit has skyrocketed by 12.4% since the end of 2014 while fresh vegetables are up a staggering 14.4%.

“I’ve never seen it that high. It’s usually $6.99, maybe $8 but that seems like quite a jump,”said Sheri Paolatto, a Crossroads Market shopper who was astonished to discover that a bag of grapefruit now costs nearly $15.

“Tomatoes trade the same as the TSX. It’s a commodity, too, and all produce is traded in U.S. dollars,” Jason Wiebe, president of Chongo’s Market at the Crossroads Farmers Market remarked. “In November, the retail cost of tomatoes on the vine was $1.99 a pound. Now I have to sell the same box at $3.99 pound,” he added.