VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Get ready for your grocery bill to rise. A consumer affairs professor figures grain prices will go up first, followed by meat and produce.
"Grains, they've been on the move for quite some time and they will continue to move," explains
SFU's Lindsay Meredith, who tells us that's because grain is used to fatten up livestock.
"Fruits and vegetables will join the parade of price hikes,"he adds. "All of that stuff has got to get delivered out of California and Mexico; it all basically comes by long-haul delivery. Diesel prices are going right through the roof, as well."
"It's going to spread right through the entire system unfortunately," he says. "The big picture is that this is a precursor to inflation."
Meredith tells us that means it will cost you more to eat at a restaurant -- and remember, you still have to pay that HST.
Loblaws, which owns Superstore, has announced a five per cent increase in prices by April.
"Gosh, doesn't this sound eerily reminiscent of the oil price spike that was the precursor to our disastrous recession?" queries Meredith. "I hope we are not on the same rollercoaster folks; it could be one hell of a ride."