Consumers hit by 50% price hikes for basic foodstuffs

CONSUMERS had to swallow rises of up to 50% in the price of basic foodstuffs last year.

Research conducted by the Irish Examiner found essentials such as milk, bread, flour, eggs, cheese, butter and fresh meat all shot up in price during 2007, adding hundreds of euro a year to shopping bills.

Inflation during 2007 was officially 4.9% yet our research shows 25 basic foods bought by consumers every week all rose between 5% and 52% during the same period.

For instance, the cost of a loaf of white bread shot up 28c to €1.36 last December, a rise of 25.6% in just one year. Likewise a litre of milk was 85c in December 2006, but a year later the cost had broken the €1 barrier to 1.01, a rise of 16c or 19.2%.

Wheat flour, which determines the price of many foods from bread to pasta, increased from €1.33 for a two-kilogramme bag to €2.03, a rise of 70c or 52.2%.

Yesterday, consumer champions and poverty campaigners said the official inflation rate was masking the true effect of price rises of food, which is the biggest single item of household expenditure.

“The foods we buy every day like a loaf of bread have really gone up a lot,” said James Doorley, the chairman of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland.

“Overall inflation is falling because clothing and footwear costs less but we only buy these things twice a year but everyday costs like milk, bread and flour have actually gone up quite a lot.

“Inflation is hitting people a lot harder than the statistics would indicate.”

The Government works out general inflation by calculating the monthly rise in prices of a basket of 613 items, ranging from housing and clothing to food, medical bills, and education.

Inflation last month dropped from 4.7% to 4.3% because the steep falls in clothing and a slight drop in household repair costs made up for the 6.7% rise in food costs and sharp rise in fuel bills.

Yesterday, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) said poorer families were hit harder by rises in foodstuffs because they spent far more on food than they did on clothing, which are all included in the inflation figures along with luxuries.

“These rises in food prices have become a real problem for us and we have been keeping a very clear weather-eye on these,” said SVP vice-president Professor John Monaghan.

“We’ve noticed flour prices have gone up dramatically and as a consequence prices of foods like bread have shot up.

“Many of the people we are dealing with lives on fixed, low incomes and spend a great amount of their income on food and they are affected greater than most people are.”

Aside from working out inflation every month, the Government’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) tracks the average monthly price of 87 key goods ranging from a kilogramme of round steak to men’s haircuts and even a shot of whiskey in a pub.

The CSO published its list of prices for December 2007, showing that of the 87 items, just 13 have fallen in price while 74 have risen since December 2006.

Of the 74 goods, 32 have risen way ahead of December’s 4.7% inflation rate with hikes of between 5.1% and 52.2%, while the other 42 have risen between 0.2% and 4.6%.

The 13 goods and services that have got cheaper include pork cuts but items consumers could live without like sugar, take-home stout and alcopops, and nightclub entry fees.