To meet the targets, the EU biodiesel industry says it will have to raise output by 15 percent each year and rely mostly on EU-grown rapeseed and sunflowerseed oils up to 2020. Only 20 percent of the raw materials would come from imports, it says.

Speaking at a conference, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the target would make EU prices for agricultural raw materials rise by between 3 and 6 per cent for cereals, and between 5 and 18 per cent for the major oilseeds.

Since prices for those raw products onbly influenced food prices to a limited extent, bread prices might increase by less than one percent because the cost of cereals comprised less than 5 percent the consumer price of bread, she said.

"With regard to oilseed-based products, the increase in vegetable oil prices would be greater," Fischer Boel said. "However, food manufacturers using vegetable oils can partly replace rapeseed oil with soyabean or sunflower oil."

In addition, if there was more processing in foods, then the share of the cost of vegetable oils would reduce in the consumer price, she said. So in highly processed foods like prepared meals and chocolate bars, consumer prices would remain stable.