The price waltz continues. After the energy which has increased in recent months due to the economic recovery following the crisis linked to Covid-19, it is the turn of the price of the baguette to rise. An increase, evaluated between “five and ten cents”, selon Dominique Anract, the president of the National Confederation of French bakery and pastry, interviewed on franceinfo Monday, October 25. Although it excludes a “soaring prices”, Dominique Anract believes that “all the lights are red: price of wheat, flour, energy, more wages, more packaging products”. Explanations.
Because wheat prices are high
One of the primary reasons for this increase is to be found in the raw material side: soft wheat. “At 280 euros per tonne, soft wheat has seen its highest price since 2012”, analysis Arthur Portier, consultant at Agritel, an expert company in the agro-food markets, contacted by franceinfo.
If cereal growers suffered from capricious weather in Europe, especially in certain French regions where the harvest was late and of poorer quality, this is also the case among the world’s largest producers. In Canada and the United States, which suffered a “heat dome” in early summer, “the production was catastrophic, specifies Arthur Portier. But also in Russia which produced 10 million tonnes less than expected “.
Faced with this drop in supply, international demand is “extremely supported”, underlines the consultant.
“China, for example, wanted to replenish all its stocks of cereals, including wheat, thus wanting to avoid possible logistical problems if a new health crisis arose.”
Arthur Portier, specialist in agro-food marketsto franceinfo
The consequences were not long in coming. “The millers have almost all passed on this increase in the price of flour at the end of the summer. And for the last bakers who still benefit from correct prices, the contracts will be revised as much as possible at the end of the year”, alert Dominique Anract in The Parisian.
Because it is linked to the cost of living
In thirty years, the average price of the baguette has increased by 23 cents from 0.66 cents in 1991 to 0.89 cents in 2021, according to the latest figures from INSEE. “Every year at the start of the school year, bakers update their prices a little in relation to the increases known throughout the year”, explains Dominique Anract in West France.
But this year, the average annual increase of a penny is not enough in the face of the rising price of wheat and the price of energy for bakers. “This is an unprecedented situation because we have never had all these elements at the same time, of this size. And it comes at the wrong time, when the pandemic has resulted for some bakers in a decrease in cash flow. “, emphasizes Dominique Anract.
Although the price of the baguette is not regulated at the national level, Dominique Anract however excludes a surge in prices in the 33,000 bakeries in France. If some bakers decide to increase their price. Others will not reflect these increases “because they bet on the fact that the prices go down”, anticipates the boss of the bakers.
Because the price of energy is also skyrocketing
The current soaring energy prices do not spare baguette professionals, for whom it is one of the most “big expense items”, underlines Nicolas Doire, the president of the Federation of bakers of Sarthe, interviewed by France Bleu.
“We heat all our ovens with gas or electricity.”
Nicolas Doire, President of the Federation of Bakers of Sartheto France Bleu
The baker explains that he did not “no other way” than to pass this increase on to the price of the baguette. The 280 or so bakers from Sarthe should apply an increase in the coming weeks “about 5 cents “, considers Nicolas Doire.
Without forgetting, for itinerant bakers, the impact of “the increase in the price of fuel on the cost of their rounds in the villages”, recalls Dominique Anract. But also “the 30% increase in household waste collection, that of the paper we need to roll up the bread [papier qui connaît actuellement une pénurie] or employees that we can no longer keep if we do not pay the price “, lists another baker, installed in the Puy-de-Dôme, in the columns of the Parisien (paid item).
Because the bakery sector suffers from a shortage of labor and the increase in the minimum wage of 34.20 euros per month on October 1 increases this expense item. Currently, “21,000 positions in bakery and pastry-making are to be filled”, specifies Dominique Anract, who does not hide that the “45% social charges, plus the rest” weigh on activity.