Nestle holds to 2 pct input cost rise 2010 forecast

LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Swiss food giant Nestle (NESN.VX) is sticking to its forecast of seeing input costs rising 2 percent in 2010 despite some concern that commodity prices are set to rise in the latter half of this year.

Roddy Child-Villiers, the head of Nestle's Investor Relations, told an analysts call after first-quarter results on Thursday that there were signs of higher commodity costs but these pressures were manageable.

"We guided in February to about 2 percent input cost pressure and our guidance remains the same ... There is clearly some cost pressure but it is all within manageable ranges," he told the results conference call.

He added that over the last 12 months, the trend in market prices for green coffee, cocoa, sugar, palm oil, milk and PET plastic packaging was up, while wheat and corn was down.

Nestle is the world's largest food company marketing Nescafe coffee, KitKat chocolate bars, Nido milk drinks, Haagen-Daz ice-cream and Maggi soups.

For Nestle Q1 results story click on [ID:nLDE63K1N8] (Reporting by David Jones; Editing by Hans Peters)