Price of fresh vegetables shoots up 18.2% in Canada: Stats Can

You’ve probably noticed your grocery bill has become more expensive over the past year. Well now it’s official thanks to a new report from Statistics Canada that says the price of fresh vegetables in Canada rose 18.2% year-over-year in January.

The prices of certain vegetables, including cauliflower (which, at one point, was going for $10 a head), rose 22.7% in January nationally, the largest year-over-year increase since April of 2009.

The price increase of fresh vegetables is largely attributable to a weak Canadian dollar, since many of our vegetables are imported from the United States.

“When we look at the overall effect of exchange rates on consumer prices, the items that are mostly of concern are essentially what you buy in the grocery stores,” UBC Sauder School of Business associate professor Werner Antweiler told Calgary Buzz.

Prices of food purchased from stores overall rose a more modest 4.6% in Canada.