Thursday, November 05, 2009
IN June 2008, only consumers in Luxembourg and Iceland paid more for whole chickens than in Ireland.
A comparison of food prices in 31 European countries also showed that only Austria and Portugal had dearer jam than Ireland.
Only consumers in Finland, Iceland and Switzerland paid more for carrots than the Irish, and Ireland and Switzerland shared the honour of having the most expensive potatoes.
Only Portugal and Britain had dearer orange juice; however, only Malta, Slovakia and Turkey had cheaper tea than Ireland.
The figures are revealed by a new European food prices monitoring tool launched by the European Commission.
A first version of the tool has been published by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, bringing together data collected by Eurostat and national statistical offices.
The tool will compare prices between member states, and show how prices develop as a product moves along the supply chain — from the farm, to the slaughterhouse, to the processor, and finally to the customer’s shopping basket.
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