Food Prices Set to Rise

VICTORIA - What you eat could cost you more. Economists predict the price of food could jump between 5 and 7 per cent this year. Blame the spike in oil prices for the increased cost in transportation and the bad weather for bad crops around the world.

Cold weather in Mexico nearly wiped out the entire tomato crop. Here in Victoria, The Lunch Kit eatery switched from beefsteak to roma tomatos to save money.

But there's more to the world food crisis. A population boom means there are more mouths to feed. The emerging middle class in China and India is adopting Western eating habits. And more and more arable land is being used to grow biofuel instead of food.

Analysts suggest the spike in global food prices will force us to buy produce grown closer to home. After all, tomatos that don't travel as far don't cost as much.

Two months ago the Root Cellar in Saanich says tomatos from Mexico cost $2.99/lb. Today BC hothouse tomatos cost just $1.99/lb.

The Root Cellar says local produce takes priority and prices have remained fairly stable. On average Statistics Canada says general food prices rose 2.1 per cent in 2010, about the same as the general inflation rate.

The biggest price jumps have been in key commodity ingredients such as wheat, corn, sugar, and vegetable oil, which have gone up as much as 50 to 100 per cent over the last year at a nera record rate.

The costs of those staple items are forcing food companies to raise their rates. Bakery company George Weston has already planned to charge 5 per cent more for it's products starting April 1.

Follow Astrid Braunschmidt on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ANewsAstrid

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• /A\ News Vancouver Island
• Victoria
• Food
• Prices
• Costs
• Increase
• Delivery
• Import
• Crisis
• Local
• Growers
• Astrid Braunschmidt