Sticker shock: Celery prices up, but expected to stabilize throughout the year, expert says

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Picking up a bunch of celery is much more expensive these days than it used to be.

Production in California is one factor for rising prices on this side of the border, and a recall of romaine lettuce last year may have some residual effects on the price of other greens, according to one expert.

“What we’re seeing is food inflation at its best,” Sylvain Charlebois, professor of Food Distribution and Policy at Dalhousie University, says. “Affecting one specific category of produce — leafy greens.”

He says often, when you see one product being impacted by factors like food recalls or alerts, that can create a problem for other foods in the same category.

“You see that at the meat counter quite often between beef, chicken, and pork. That’s kind of what you see with leafy greens and green produce in general, and that’s why celery has been up,” Charlebois notes.

Challenges in production have also brought prices higher, affecting demand.

The good news is Charlebois expects prices to come down — slightly — over the next few months as agriculture picks up in Canada. However, he predicts prices will likely stay fairly high, and become more stable throughout the rest of the year.

“We are expecting things to calm down a little bit over the next couple of months in Canada as our own agriculture picks up the pace in the spring,” he says.

Meantime, UBC Food and Resource Economics Professor James Vercammen points out there aren’t many direct substitutes for celery, which has often been an inexpensive staple for many people.

“I guess, on the other side though, celery is not very caloric dense, so it’s not like it’s a really high calorie food that you would be sort of growing hungry if you don’t get your celery.”

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