An annual report published by the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) shows farmers are getting less share of the food dollar, while consumers are paying more at the grocery store.
APAS released the 2026 Farmer and Food Price Report, which studies the trend of commodity prices relative to the price of food items at the grocery store.
The report looks at canola, wheat, barley, lentils, and hogs on the commodity side; and retail pork, canola oil, flour, bread, beer, lentils, and margarine on the grocery side.
For 2024-25, APAS notes prices for both commodity and grocery product were relatively stable compared to the volatility of previous years. For example, 2021-22 saw all products rise by double digits with most commodity prices rising at a faster pace than food prices.
The years 2022-23 and 2023-24, however, saw the trend flip where commodity prices fell and grocery prices rose. As a result, the farm share of food prices in 2025 compared the last three years is lower for flour, bread, beer, lentils, canola oil, and margarine, but retail pork is fairly stable.
President of APAS Bill Prybylski believes the data confirms what farmers know already.
"We're seeing the same trend continue where consumers are seeing in the grocery store that their prices that they're paying have continued to rise at different rates, but still continuing to rise, and there definitely is not a corresponding rise to the increase in what farmers are getting paid for the commodities that they grow.
So I guess the bottom line is we're definitely seeing that there's really no correlation between what consumers are paying in the grocery store and to what farmers are getting paid for their commodities that they're growing." said Prybylski.
The purpose of the report, he says, is to raise awareness of the gap in commodity prices and food prices. Prybylski says there are still some people who think when food prices go up, so do the amount farmers get paid.
"And it's understandable that consumers would assume that they're paying more, that farmers are getting paid more, but this study kind of confirms what I think most producers know is that that's not necessarily the case. The commodity prices that we receive for what we grow aren't indicative of what's happening at the retail level."
He says farmers don't set the commodity price, rather they take what the market gives them.
Another reason for the report is highlighting the supply chain – how complex it is and the need for greater transparency.
"I hope that the rest of the players in the supply chain would maybe take the initiative to show some transparency in that supply chain into where are all those additional costs coming from, from the farm gate to where the product hits the grocery shelves."
This is the fourth year of the report and Prybylski says the study was "mentioned a couple of times in the House of Commons" in Ottawa, but not from anyone along the supply chain so far.
"I've yet to hear anybody commenting on it or suggesting that they would be willing to do a similar study, but we'll remain hopeful and we will continue to circulate the results of this study as widely as we can."
The 2026 Farmer and Food Price Report is available on the APAS website.
