Updated Thu. Apr. 24 2008 8:38 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Mel Fruitman, of the Consumers' Association of Canada, said that while food costs in Canada are currently among the lowest in the world, that will change.
"We are going to continue to be somewhat insulated for the next little while, but then the bubble is going to burst," Fruitman told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.
"Competition between the retailers helps us as consumers keep the price of our food basket down, but it also puts increasing pressure on the farms, on farmers, and that can't continue. Somewhere along the way the dam is going to burst."
For Canadians, the rising cost of fuel will have particular impact on the cost of food, particularly when consumers have come to expect a year-round supply of fresh fruits and vegetables in their grocery stores, Fruitman said.
"Anything that is trucked in, flown in, that comes from farther away than our normal hundred kilometres, say, is going to cost that much more to get to us," Fruitman said.
"And of course, the cost of fuel affects the cost of production of that food, it affects the cost of feed for the various animals. So, we are on a rising curve, there's no question about it."
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