The basket of food staples used by pollster TNS Emor for its monthly food price survey cost 68.66 euros per person in March, 2.42 euros or 3.7 percent more than in the same month a year ago.
Price of TNS Emor food basket climbs 3.7 pct on year
Month on month, the food basket became cheaper by 0.69 euros or one percent.
The biggest increases compared with March 2012 were recorded in the prices of vegetables and fruit, as non-packaged potatoes became 42.2 percent and imported apples 17.1 percent more expensive. Significant increases took place also in eggs, 21.2 percent, and fresh salmon, 16.6 percent. In meat products the Kodune staple brand of minced meat consisting half of pork and half of beef rose 23.6 percent and non-packaged snack sausages 13 percent.
The biggest decreases were recorded in imported tomatoes, 12.1 percent, natural cheese, 4.9 percent, and sugar, 4.2 percent.
The TNS Emor basket of grocery staples includes more than 50 dairy, meat, cereal and fish products, fruit and vegetables, and eggs and sugar. Prices are monitored in the largest retail chains whose proportion in the sample broadly reflects their market share.