According to figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Communities, EU food prices, which have been rising above the rate of inflation since July 2007, jumped by a staggering 7.1 per cent in April, compared to a year previously.
March and April 2008 saw the highest annual increases in food prices recorded in the EU and euro area, with countries such as Bulgaria (25.4 per cent), Latvia (21.7 per cent), Estonia (18.3 per cent) and Lithuania (18.1 per cent) the most severely affected.
Far lower rises were witnessed in the likes of Portugal (3.2 per cent), the Netherlands (5.4 per cent), France (5.5 per cent), Cyprus (5.8 per cent) and Italy (5.9 per cent).
In the EU, fruit prices experienced an annual increase of 10.7 per cent in April 2008, compared to a 2.1 per cent rise in 2007. However, the price of vegetables actually decreased, in comparison to a jump of 9.9 per cent in 2007.
