French bakeries under threat over energy bills hike

French bakeries are fighting to survive the ongoing inflation in electricity and fuels prices, with a huge threat of closing down, according to CNN reported on Friday.

Millery, a town in southeastern France, is struggling the most where various bakeries are on the verge of closing down. Élodie Chavret is a 39 year old woman who runs a bakery to make a living for her daughters and herself.

She spoke to CNN saying that she fears that she might not be able to pay the bakery’s electricity bill after it escalated immensely from $978 to $8,146 in January.

With a government subsidy, her bill should drop to $4,888, which is still an unmanageable increase to her.

Chavret told CNN that the new rate is unbearable and will obliterate her profits, which are already affected by the gasoline costs, rising cost of raw material, and the higher wages for her six employees.

Nicolas Amaté, owner of a bakery in eastern France, talked to CNN about how prices are all going up and said “if this continues, we will all close.”

The French industrial producer prices increased by 13 percent year-over-year in February, and input prices in French manufacturing rose as well.

However, inflation in energy prices has had the biggest impact on many businesses due to how fast the costs increase when electricity contracts are renewed.

The Russian war on Ukraine increased the European natural gas prices to record levels, to be followed by an increase in power prices as well.

Power prices in France are currently three times their average pre-invasion level according to the European Energy Exchange.