next »

[Alec]

Hola everyone,

I always thought IPOD meant a nifty little gadget that plays music, but I read in the Spanish press that it stands for Indice de Precios en Origen y Destino de los alimentos (roughly translated as "index of production and retail prices of foods").

The latest figures show that the shops charge an average of 474% of what farmers sell things for. Some examples are even more upsetting - for instance a farmer receives 9 centimos per kilo of oranges, yet they sell in the shops for 2.19 Euros - a markup of 1,589%!

The picture in the U.K. is much the same, because farmers are always complaining that they are held to ransom over food prices by the supermarkets, but I can't believe it could be quite as bad as this.

The good news is that it just goes to show how much you can save by growing your own fruit and veggies! In these worrying times, particularly for those who are living off a UK pension which has become worth about one-third less, it's a positive way to help the household budget.