Beef, coffee and tomatoes among the grocery items with the biggest price increases this year

A person shops at a grocery store in Montreal, Canada, on February 3, 2025. Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV /AFP via Getty Images

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New data from Statistics Canada shows that food prices rose by 3.5 per cent year-over-year in April 2026, although many grocery staples saw their prices increase by significantly more than that.

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Meat is one of the biggest drivers of food price inflation, with beef prices continuing to climb amid tight supplies and strong consumer demand.

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Beef striploin cuts saw their price increase most year-over-year to $42.42 — an increase of $9.61 or 29.29 per cent.

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Similarly, the average price of beef top sirloin cuts increased by $2.74 to an average price of $28.94 per kilogram, while beef rib cuts per kilogram increased by $2.35 to $30.56 as of April 2026.

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Beef stewing cuts saw a price increase of $1.86 per kilogram to $22.51 on average, and ground beef reached $15.59 per kilogram in April, a $1.42 increase compared to last year.

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Other protein that saw price increases include salmon (+$1.24), canned salmon (+$0.73), chicken breasts (+$0.88), chicken drumsticks (+$0.59), whole chicken (+$0.32) and bacon (+$0.31).

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Elsewhere, coffee also saw steep price hikes compared to other products. A 340g bag of roasted or ground coffee now costs $9.39, compared to $7.78 in April 2025.

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Bananas rose in price by roughly 12 per cent, from $1.66 to $1.87 per kilogram. The price of tomatoes increased by $1.49 from $4.69 to $6.18.

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Not all grocery prices moved higher, however. A handful of products became slightly cheaper compared with a year ago.

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These include eggs, which fell from $4.92 to $4.80 per dozen; onions, which declined from $5.64 to $5.54 per kilogram; and chicken thighs, which edged down by one cent, from $12.17 to $12.16 per kilogram.

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Overall inflation increased to 2.8 per cent in April, up from 2.4 per cent in March. RBC said in a report last month that this figure is “less than expected, driven primarily by higher gasoline prices and fading favourable energy base effects.”

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Meanwhile, the latest data on food prices comes just days after new figures indicated Canada has entered a technical recession.

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Recessions are generally defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. On Friday, Statistics Canada announced that GDP contracted by 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, following a one per cent contraction in the fourth quarter of 2025.

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Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to investors that the decline in the Canadian economy seen over the last six months is “barely a scratch in GDP terms.”

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But Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Canadians need answers about why Canada has the only shrinking economy in the G7 while speaking in front of the House of Commons on Monday, and blamed Liberal economic policies for the result.

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