How much will turkey dinner cost this holiday season? We crunched the numbers
CBC
Canadians could see some relief as they fill their shopping carts this holiday season.
After years of rising food prices, the cost of many pantry staples has stabilized — and there could be particular relief in the most expensive item on many Canadians' holiday tables: the bird.
The price of a fresh turkey is trending down compared with last year, and it's currently on track to be about 12 per cent less expensive than it was five years ago, according to a CBC analysis of national data from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
"Our expectation is that [turkey] prices will be a bit lower," said Ellen Goddard, an agricultural economist and professor emerita at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "That should make your meal a little bit more affordable."
Still, after years of food inflation, many popular holiday side dishes and desserts have undergone double-digit price increases, according to Statistics Canada data.
Baking a simple batch of sugar cookies is now $3.92, up 38 per cent from $2.84 in 2019.
Making mashed potatoes will now cost $5.75, up 31 per cent from $4.38 that year.
And serving a tray of homemade rolls will run you about $3.59, up 29 per cent from $2.79 five years ago.
"It's a bit of a good news, bad news situation," said Mike von Massow, a food economist at the University of Guelph. "The good news is prices haven't gone up again. The bad news is they haven't come down a bunch ... we're still feeling the pressure."
CBC News calculated the price of classic recipes for a table of six to eight people, created by Calgary food writer Julie Van Rosendaal, using ingredients from the Statistics Canada database of monthly retail prices and data from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Prices will, of course, vary province to province, city to city and store to store. Consumer choices also play a role: Are they buying generic or brand name? Local products or imported?
But the analysis is intended to show, broadly speaking, how prices for popular recipes are shifting.
The numbers include full-year data for 2019-23, and January to October data for 2024.
To recap: Why did food prices climb so quickly in recent years?
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