How quiet staple became Canada's biggest food price shock

When Canadians think of food price hikes, they tend to picture meat, coffee, produce, or even chocolate. Rice rarely comes to mind. Yet in 2025, rice has quietly become the single fastest-rising food product in Canadian grocery stores — up 48.9% since January, according to Statistics Canada. That’s not a rounding error. A standard 2-kg bag of white rice now sits close to $10, a hefty increase for one of the most affordable global staples.

The reasons are layered. While Statistics Canada’s price index paints a broad picture of “white rice,” much of the pressure comes from specific market dynamics. For several months, Canadian tariffs on U.S. rice imports squeezed processor margins. Dainty — the 143-year-old Montreal-based company that remains Canada’s only rice milling facility — imports r