Your Grocery Bill Is Going Up Again. Maple Leaf Just Said So
Maple Leaf Foods plans another price increase in early 2027, citing fuel and poultry costs. Grocery prices are up 33% since 2020 and beef has climbed 55.5% in five years.
C-Tribe Editorial
Here is a sentence nobody wanted to hear heading into winter: "We do have plans to adjust our prices in Q1." That was Curtis Frank, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, on the company's third-quarter earnings call. Translation for anyone who buys bacon, deli meat or chicken in Canada: another price increase is coming early in 2027.
And it lands just as the official numbers were starting to look a little less painful.
Why is Maple Leaf raising prices again?
Two words, according to Frank: feed and fuel. On the call, he said fuel surcharges have climbed about 17% since the company's second-quarter results, and the pricing Maple Leaf already implemented "has not yet caught up to that," per the company's earnings call transcript.
Poultry is the bigger hit. Poultry makes up roughly 40% of Maple Leaf's sales, and under Canada's supply management system, live bird costs rose about 3% from the third quarter to the fourth, effective October 18, and about 8% year over year, "with very short advanced notice," Frank said. He also pointed to inflation in "damn near everything else, labor, packaging and ingredients."
"We've seen more inflation enter the business than we have expected. That's accelerating," he said, as CBC News reported. The next one would follow two increases in the past year, CBC noted.
Wait, aren't grocery prices supposed to be cooling?
Sort of, which is what makes this frustrating. Prices for food bought in stores rose just 1.7% year over year in September, the smallest increase since May 2024, according to Statistics Canada. Cheaper fresh vegetables did a lot of that work.
But slower growth is still growth, and it is stacking on top of a huge base. StatCan says grocery prices are up 33.0% since September 2020. In other words, your grocery bill is not getting smaller. It is just getting bigger more slowly, and companies like Maple Leaf are signaling that the slowdown may not last.
How bad has meat gotten?
Bad. Ground beef averaged $9.18 per kilogram in September 2020 and $16.92 in September 2026, according to StatCan's monthly retail price data. A striploin went from $20.73 to about $35.74 per kilogram. Chicken breasts rose from $12.03 to $14.48.
Beef prices rose 8.7% in September from a year earlier and have climbed 55.5% over five years, CBC Calgary reported, citing StatCan.
Is there any good news for beef in Alberta?
A little. Canada's cattle herd is finally rebuilding. Producers held 12.1 million cattle and calves on July 1, up 3.2% from a year earlier and the largest annual increase since 2004, according to Statistics Canada's livestock estimates. Ranchers kept 5.7% more beef heifers for breeding.
"The worst of the price jumps I would say are over," Brenna Grant, executive director of Calgary-based beef data firm Canfax, told CBC. Just do not expect a sale. "It's very rare that you actually see those retail prices come down in any significant way," she said. "Any relief would be very modest and it may be on only some cuts." Guelph livestock analyst Kevin Grier warned supplies could get tighter in 2027 as ranchers hold back breeding animals instead of sending them to slaughter.
Southern Alberta rancher Michael Munton, who runs Benchmark Angus near Warner, said the recovery depends on moisture this winter and spring. At Modern Steak in Calgary, owner Stephen Deere said he raised menu prices by as much as 10% this year.
What does this mean if you are young and on a budget?
You are not imagining it. In the Salvation Army's 2026 poverty report, 41% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 said they skipped or reduced meals because they could not afford groceries, compared with 31% nationally. Nearly one in four younger Canadians used community food supports, up from 15% in 2025. Food bank visits topped 2.35 million in March, an 8.7% jump, according to Food Banks Canada's HungerCount report, as covered by CBC News.
Researchers had already warned this year would sting. Canada's Food Price Report 2026 forecast overall food prices rising 4% to 6%, with a family of four spending $17,571.79, and named Alberta among the provinces expected to see increases above the national average.
The practical playbook is what shoppers are already doing. University of Guelph food economist Mike von Massow told CBC that people are trading down rather than giving up beef, choosing a blade steak over a roast. Buying cheaper cuts, cooking in bulk and watching flyers in the weeks before a known price hike all help. When a major supplier announces an increase months ahead, that is your cue to stock the freezer before Q1, not after.