Trends affecting food prices

May 05, 2020

The report looks at what has affected food price trends up to the end of 2019.

“Long and short-term food price trends show some notable and impactful moments in Canada’s food price history,” says Jeewani Fernando, provincial consumer market analyst with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

She adds that a notable trend of increasing food prices between 2007 and 2012 followed a global economic slow down.

“No single factor explains why the increase in food prices was global and widespread. Higher food prices were a result of a number of interrelated and complex factors. Some of those potential drivers included a general increase in global demand, low international stockpiles, higher inputs, adverse weather and export bans.”

Short-term trends that affected food prices included a beef price shock in 2015, the diafiltered - ultrafiltered - milk loophole in imports, U.S. imports of fresh fruits and vegetables and the revelation in 2018 of the bread price-fixing scandal.

“These significant events illustrate potential vulnerabilities of Canada’s food sector and the volatility of food prices,” she explains. “It also shows that industry and government are limited in their ability to be proactive and take action to stabilize food prices.”

“However, the insights in this report may be useful for Alberta food businesses when developing strategy and for consumers who are concerned about rising food costs, especially in our current climate.”

Source : alberta.ca

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.