Bread, bread, pastry, loaf, slice, wooden board – illustration photo.
Prague – The prices of baked goods this year should only increase in the order of one percent and there should not be a jump in prices like last year. This was stated in a press release by the Union of Bakers and Confectioners in the Czech Republic. According to the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ), the average price of a kilogram of consumer bread was half the year-on-year increase in December last year.
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The executive director of the association, Bohumil Hlavatý, previously stated that the bakery industry was significantly affected by the rising cost of energy and flour last year, which also led to the termination of dozens of businesses. According to the union, bakeries paid an average of 350 percent more for gas last year than in 2021, but for some, costs rose more than tenfold. Companies had to reflect the increase in costs in the prices of their products.
Last year, from January to December, according to the CZSO, the average price of one kilogram of edible caraway bread rose by 48.6 percent from CZK 33.71 to CZK 44.32. The year before last, the average price did not change significantly, and a kilogram of bread cost around CZK 30.
According to the union, this year the prices of raw materials and energy should not rise as significantly as last year. “In this way, bakers will not be forced to further increase the prices of their products,” added Hlavatý, adding that despite the collapse of some bakeries, the Czech Republic is self-sufficient in the production of baked goods. Last fall, the union stated that a family of four spent CZK 1,600 a month on pastries last year, which is CZK 400 more than in 2021.
Hlavatý previously stated that last spring five large bakeries closed, which already had problems due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. According to him, dozens of small businesses out of roughly 800 bakeries in the Czech Republic also closed last year, mostly small and family businesses in smaller towns and villages. companies in the Czech Republic controls 90 percent of the market. He added that new small bakeries are being created in big cities because people in them have higher economic power than in smaller cities.
