Brussels bakers struggle to make ends meet as flour prices soar

In his palms, Arnaud Szalies is holding what he refers to as white gold: flour.

An award-winning pastry chef, Szalies – like everybody else in his trade – has seen costs of flour rise 30% within the final three months amid the warfare in Ukraine.

Ukraine is one in all Europe’s largest producers of wheat and the fifth largest exporter on the planet. Russia, in the meantime, is the world’s largest wheat exporter.

“With the warfare coming we do not know the way excessive it’s going to go,” he advised Euronews.

Szalies stated that costs are going up so quick that he doesn’t know the way a lot he must pay when he orders it.

“You possibly can think about that if we purchase one thing with out understanding the value we don’t know the way a lot to promote it for,” he stated.

“If we have now to place our costs up then we lose prospects.”

Szalies has already needed to let go of one in all his group and now has a single pastry chef serving to him throughout his two workshops.

Albert Denoncin, co-president of the Belgian Bakery and Pastry Confederation, has warned that the issue may very well be about to get even worse.

“We should not overlook that Ukraine is the granary of Europe, and with what is going on in the intervening time, there may be nothing extra popping out of Ukraine,” he stated.

“Which means that tomorrow we might see the value of flour quadruple, which would not shock us, given the present circumstances.”

For Belgium’s 3,500 bakeries and pastry outlets, wheat just isn’t the one factor that’s getting costlier.

Vitality costs have skyrocketed and are set to extend much more throughout 2022 as Europe slashes the quantity of pure fuel it imports from Russia and oil costs rise.

“Final yr we have been paying 3,000 euros a month for electrical energy and we have simply obtained an adjustment of 9,000 euros,” he stated.

“So I will allow you to think about, the worst is but to come back. Subsequent yr, how a lot we pays, I don’t know.”