With the war in the Middle East squeezing worldwide supplies of fuel and fertilizer, Canadians can expect food inflation to remain elevated for the rest of 2026.
Iran’s virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz has impacted nearly 20 percent of global energy and 30 percent of global fertilizer exports, right as planting season is about to begin for many countries. Higher prices for oil, diesel, and fertilizers will put further pressure on the price of food in Canada, which was already projected to rise steadily in 2026.
While the 2026 edition of Canada’s Food Price Report anticipated grocery prices would rise by between 4 percent and 6 percent this year, Sylvain Charlebois, the senior director of the agri-food analytics lab at Dalhousie University, told The Epoch Times that higher energy prices are likely to keep inflation “north of 6 percent” for most of 2026….