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"The price of milk, butter and pasta have already risen by 20 to 25 per cent on average," said Jean-Pierre Roelands, commercial director for Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt.

"Now the impact is going to be felt on processed products like yoghurt, cheese and breakfast cereals with an increase of 10 per cent expected by the end of the year," he added.

"For vegetable oils such as peanut and sunflower oil, it's even stronger. We're expecting an increase as high as 30 per cent between November and December."

The reason is that prices for farm commodities are booming worldwide due to surging demand in fast-growing developing countries, bad harvests caused by unfavourable weather and the increasing use of farmland to grow biofuels.

Soaring food prices are increasingly turning up in overall inflation reports as a main driver of higher overall consumer prices in Europe.

In Italy, bread prices have jumped 7.3 per cent over one year, while the cost of pasta, the national dish, has climbed 4.5 per cent and food industry association Federalimentare expects more increases.

"According to our forecasts, we are expecting an increase [in food prices] of 2.4 per cent by Christmas," Federalimentare president Giandomenico Auricchio said.

Economist Sylvain Broyer at French bank Natixis said that although processed foods represent only 12 per cent of European households annual consumption, "that's enough to make inflation sentiment among European households jump".

"The consumer is particularly sensitive to everyday purchases," he said. "The consumer is also more sensitive to prices of products that he can forgo only with difficulty, like food."

The secretary-general of the Eurocommerce association of European retailers and wholesalers, Xavier Durieu, said that consumers were seeing a "catch-up" in prices after several decades of tame food prices.

However, many consumers find that argument hard to swallow, suspecting that big companies are using rising raw ingredient costs as a pretext to artificially lift their profit margins.

In Spain, some consumer associations have spoken out against retailers' lack of transparency and have urged the public to be on guard.

Faced with growing pressure to do something about food prices, politicians are beginning to act and French Consumer Affairs Ministers has put companies in his sights.

"I've seen milk prices fall 25 per cent in the past, but I've never seen the price of yoghurt fall 25 per cent. We can't always have prices being pushed up and never pushed down," he said.

Vocabulary

relentless (adj): continuing and not stopping or getting smaller

to blame ... on (v) : to say that something or somebody is responsible for a bad situation or thing

boom (n) : big and sudden increase

commodities (n) : goods that have not yet been processed; ie grains, fruits, vegetables or precious metals

to surge (v) : to increase suddenly and to a large amount

unfavourable (adj) : causing a disadvantage; not of benefit; bad

biofuel (n) : fuel that is made of renewable resources like palm oil or ethanol

to turn up (v) : to show up; to appear

to forgo (v) : to give up; to do without

pretext (n) : pretence; something that is used as reason for an action although it may have nothing to do with it

Questions

1. Which food item has the biggest expected rise in price?

a. Rice

b. Bread

c. Cheese

d. Vegetable oils

2. What is a reason for this increase?

a. Seasonal adjustments

b. Eruptions of solar flares

c. Increased use of biofuels

d. Continuing war in the Middle East

3. What is Italy's national dish?

a. Tacos

b. Pasta

c. Sauerkraut

d. Enchiladas

4. Why is the increase in food prices especially important to people?

a. Farmers will be rich soon.

b. It signals impending pay rises.

c. It is impossible to stop buying food.

d. Politicians will soon call for elections.

5. What do people believe causes the increase in food prices?

a. Rich companies will share their profits.

b. Companies increase their profit margins.

c. The army wants to discredit the government.

d. Schools charge students more for their lunches.

Synonyms

Which of the following words or phrases replace the ones from the passage best?

1. Amid

a. during

b. avoiding

c. expecting

d. supporting

2. Global

a. big

b. repeated

c. worldwide

d. unexciting

3. Impact

a. price

b. product

c. improvement

d. consequences

4. Soar

a. reduce

b. escalate

c. fluctuate

d. keep steady

5. Pasta

a. cake

b. pizza

c. bakery

d. noodles

KEY

Questions         1. d, 2. c, 3. b, 4. c, 5. b

Synonyms         1. a, 2. c, 3. d, 4. b, 5. d

By Ajarn Horst Baelz