Crop failures due to climate change, supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have led to a shortage in food production worldwide, with cooking oil among other products affected.

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, told CTV Your Morning on Wednesday that these factors have created the "perfect storm" of shortages globally, causing cooking oil prices to rise over the past six months.

While grocery store prices have been affected, Charlebois says consumers will see the biggest increase when dining at restaurants.

"I've heard from restaurant operators that they are likely to see prices triple by the end of this year when it comes to vegetable oils. Foodservice is important when it comes to vegetable oils in Canada.

Charlebois said consumers should prepare to spend more when eating out and budget accordingly.

He said, "I know many people want to go out and they should go out and celebrate and live a normal life, but it will definitely cost you more at the restaurant, and vegetable oil prices are one of the main reasons, unfortunately."

In addition to climate change, COVID-19 supply chain issues, and the war in Ukraine.

Indonesia has begun restricting palm oil exports, a move Charlebois says could worsen the global food crisis and raise prices of hundreds of products.

Indonesia accounts for 55 percent of global palm oil exports, while Ukraine is the world's largest exporter of sunflower oil.

He said, "We often think of vegetable oil as something we fry with, but when you enter the grocery store, vegetable oil is in almost everything we buy."

Charlebois said that "vegetable oil is a key ingredient worldwide" and is a staple in foods like pasta, biscuits, chocolate, mayonnaise, and many dry goods and baked products.

With restrictions on palm oil and shortages of other cooking oils, Charlebois says companies will raise prices on goods containing vegetable oil to offset purchasing costs.

He said, "We will be in a shortage of vegetable oil and, of course, prices will rise worldwide, unfortunately." To help combat this cooking oil shortage, Charlebois said Canada will look to use canola oil "as a plentiful crop" this season. However, he says bad weather could choke this plan.

Overall, Charlebois said the outlook is bleak and said it is a "good idea" for Canadians to use alternatives to vegetable oils when they can, and also to be prepared for anything.