Food cost skyrockets, yet avocados remain…cheap?

Food cost is at an all-time high and there are a lot of reasons for this, and not particularly the ones we’re being fed by our world leaders, I’m afraid.

In Canada, conservative party leader and opposition to the current liberal prime minister (for my great American fiends and readers, this means republicans vs. democrats, Canadian edition), Pierre Poilievre states that the inflation for heat, food/groceries and the general cost of living is nothing but a scheme on liberal Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau’s part.

While politicians and world leaders argue about why food is so expensive, we need to find a lower food cost. Have we?  Keep reading to find out…

He has some supporters in that accusation, and quite a few of them at that, as this issue goes indeed from bad to worse in Canada and in the States as well; as does the rest of the world. Many are blaming the spike on the war in Ukraine. This has indeed become a common reasoning for many and a logical one at that, but there might be more to all of this that definitely needs unearthing.

‘The people have a right to know.’ Ah, the credo of the journalist…what drove me and my colleagues to this profession. And in that spirit, what does NATO have to say about all of this?

Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, had this specifically to say while speaking to the press this week:

"“The increased prices and problems we have seen in the global food market is not caused by sanctions, it is caused by the war itself…The best way of ending this is for (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin to end the war.”via Global News"

Bold words and the message is a positive one. These above comments were made after Russia joined back in with a deal that had been made between the United Nations and Turkey to keep grain and goods flowing from Ukraine’s ports. A step in the right direction many would say, but hopefuls would do good to keep celebrations at bay for now.

Because once again, if you speak to Poilievre, the conservative party leader, and Prime Minister hopeful, these skyrocket prices are indeed a hoax and a scam on the part of the Liberals.

But while the politicians argue, the fact remains that food is indeed an issue— food cost at least. No food source is cheap, the general thought is.

According to, many—even Poilievre, who mentioned the following in his debate against Prime Minister Trudeau this week, stating essentially that many are opting to skip meals because food is so expensive. A piece at CBC suggests that it costs $1,000 per month to feed a family of four if looking for healthy food sources specifically.

This of course brings us to another point: Many are eating unhealthy food to get by…canned goods, chips for lunch, etc.. That’s no food for growing children; not on a daily basis at least.

But there is in fact a bright light at the end of this particularly difficult food cost tunnel…a few truffles hidden beneath the dirt of said tunnel, if you will. And although they don’t grow in the dirt per se, avocados are miraculously cheap right about now.

As per a piece at CNN (link below), avocado’s are at their cheapest right now, and all because the crops were really good this year. The supply outweighed the demand essentially in this case. It’s as simple as that.

Also, according to CNN, the aforementioned piece, some trade agreements between America and Mexico saw some incidents that saw a smaller flow of the fruit into the country at earlier periods, but because of the great crops and the normalization of those aforementioned trade agreements, there are plenty of avocados coming into the States and Canada right now, and thankfully, they’re really cheap.

Richard Kottmeyer, who is the managing director of food, agriculture, and beverage over at FTI Consulting, spoke to CNN about this development.

"“It’s one of those odd situations where this extreme oversupply of avocados is only possible because of a perfect storm of Black Swan events…For consumers, avocados right now are the green lining to the storm clouds of food inflation…Bumper crops would usually be sold across the globe…”via CNN (link above)"

According to Wikipedia, a ‘Bumper Crop,’ is a specific crop that has enjoyed quite the period of growth. In this case, avocados. Richard Kottmeyer’s statements continue below:

"“Europe has significant food inflation, so when avocado prices got high earlier this year, the demand went down in that market…Much of the avocado oversupply has wound up in the U.S.”via CNN (link above)"

Covid-19 was first the issue and now the war in Ukraine does get some of the blame for the higher price of avocados in Europe essentially, according to Kottmeyer at least. Perhaps Pierre Poilievre would disagree?

And for us foodies, that’s great news…and the more recipes we know that feature avocados the better. I guess we’ll be putting guacamole on everything come this holiday season, eh?