Restaurant Spending Expected to Reach Record Levels in 2018

0

HALIFAX — Canada’s Food Price Report 2018 — a joint report by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph — predicts that food expenditures will increase in 2018.

The report forecasts modest increases in many food categories, but the price of vegetables is expected to rise by four to six per cent because of unaccommodating climate conditions such as La Niña, explains Sylvain Charlebois, lead author of the report, and dean of the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University.

The authors predict that as Canadians increasingly prioritize convenience, they will continue to spend more in restaurants or consume ready-to-eat products. “Canadians will eat out more frequently in 2018, and that will come at a cost,” says Charlebois.

The foodservice industry is expected to be responsible for 59 per cent of the anticipated food expenditure increases in 2018. The average family is expected to spend $208 more when eating out, increasing its food-away-from-home expenses by close to eight per cent in 2018. Overall, the average home is expected to spend approximately 30 per cent of its food budget in foodservice — the highest level in history.

The complete report is available at dal.ca.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.