Biggest food price-rise in the EU is in dairy products

Apr 22 2008 by Steve Dube, Western Mail

PRICES for milk, cheese and eggs in Europe have shown a sharp increase over the last year while those for meat have gone up less than half as fast.

A report by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Meat Services analyses changes to the average rate of inflation for selected food groups in the 27 EU member states, comparing the rate in February 2008 with the same month of 2007.

The analysis showed prices of milk, cheese and eggs rose by almost 7%, compared with only 1% during the 12-month period before that. Prices of bread and cereal-based foods also recorded much larger price rises than a year earlier. In contrast, meat and fish prices rose by only 3% .

Bulgaria and Latvia have suffered the most from food price rises, recording food inflation at around 16% compared with an EU average of 4%.