Higher food prices bear fruit for Fyffes

Profits at tropical fruit exporter Fyffes have more than doubled as the price of food soars.

The Irish banana distributor today said profits jumped 124% to 35.1million (£27.9million) from 15.7million in the first six months of the year.

It underlined the rapidly rising price of fresh food, which has seen shopping bills rocket.

Chairman David McCann today said: "Over the last two years, our industry has experienced unprecedented increases in the costs of fruit, shipping and fuel.

"During the first half of 2008, Fyffes achieved increases in selling prices which enabled us to offset the impact of substantially higher costs."

However, he again warned full-year results will be hit as "the increases in selling prices needed to offset further increases in costs are not currently being achieved".