Baseball-sized head of lettuce seen selling for $5 in the Greater Toronto Area
CTV
Grocery prices increased by more than 10 per cent last year in Canada meaning the average family of four had to pay an additional $1,000 for the exact same items.
Grocery prices increased by more than 10 per cent last year in Canada meaning the average family of four had to pay an additional $1,000 for the exact same items.
Prices are expected to go up another five to seven per cent in 2023 and there is one item on your grocery list that has tripled in price – lettuce.
“Lettuce prices have spiked due to a significant volume of decreases particularly over the month of November," according to Christopher Valadez, the president and CEO of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California.
Canada imports about a half a billion dollars worth of lettuce from the United States, much of it from California, but growers there have had a perfect storm of disease, cold weather and inflation which has caused lettuce prices to increase dramatically.
California's Salinas Valley has been called the salad bowl of North America and lettuce growers there lost about one third of their crop.
The increases were most noticeable last November when importers said they were paying $150 for a case of lettuce which used to cost them $50.
At the time, Benny Pearl, owner of D. Pearl and Sons Produce in Windsor, said, “It's probably triple the price it should be at this time of the year."
