On average, Canada’s weak dollar has driven up imported fruit and vegetables as much as 15 percent, and in some cases even more. Lettuce is said to be up nearly 18 percent over last year at this time. The reason for the dollar’s weakness is of course the sinking price of oil. There’s way too much of it to sustain previous prices. One reason for that is the new river of natural gas flooding the market and the slowdown in the Chinese economy.
STATS CANADA
Statistics Canada’s January year-over-year inflation number was up from 1.6 per cent in December. The agency’s latest consumer price index found the overall cost of food was up four per cent last month compared to a year earlier — with fresh vegetable prices up 18.2 per cent and fruits up 12.9 per cent. Lettuce, as noted, is up 17.9 per cent over the year before, apples were up 16.6 per cent and tomatoes up 11.9 per cent.
CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR DOWN
Year-over-year prices moved upwards in every category of the index except for clothing and footwear, which saw a decrease of 0.3 per cent compared to January 2015. Lower prices in January for items such as natural gas, fuel oil and telephone services kept downward pressure on the inflation reading, the agency said. Natural gas was down 18.6 per cent, fuel oil down 15 per cent and telephone services 2.5 per cent.