London - British-Dutch food conglomerate Unilever reported Thursday that its operating profit in the first quarter of 2008 rose 34 per cent to 1.41 billion euros (2.18 billion dollars) despite higher raw materials costs.

The company said the earnings were boosted by the one-off effect of the sale of the cheese producer Boursin.

Pre-tax profits were also up 34 per cent year on year, to 1.78 billion euros, Unilever said.

The earnings came on sales revenues of 9.57 billion euros, barely surpassing the 9.53 billion euros of the first quarter of 2007.

But adjusting for currency and other factors such as sales and acquisitions of company units, the rise was 7.2 per cent, with business above all growing in central and eastern Europe. (dpa)