Rising production costs are creating major challenges for bakers across Europe. From small family businesses to industrial bakeries with many machines and employees: high bills threaten their existence for everyone.

Euronews visited several bakeries in Italy, Romania and the Netherlands to understand how they are coping with the crisis, Rador cites.

Jack Van Roon’s Bakery: The End of Almost 100 Years of History

First stop: the city of Delft, the Netherlands. The war in Ukraine and inflation forced Jack Van Roon, the owner of a small bakery, to close his business.

“The problem is the excessive price of gas,” says Van Roon, “at some point you can’t keep up.” Until now I had to pay 1,400 euros per month, but soon it will be 12-13,000 euros per month. the amount I have to pay in November. It cannot continue like this.”

The decision puts an end to the activity with almost 100 years of history, the bakery existed since 1928, when bread was still delivered by horse-drawn carts.

Jack’s father took over the business 30 years ago. Soon his son started working with him. Everyone in the neighborhood appreciates Jack and his delicious pies.

“People here have grown up with my cakes,” says Van Roon, “I have a nineteen-year-old bakery client that I made a cake for when he was born. I have been working as a confectioner for 19 years. I made all kinds of cakes for them with pictures, even with stickers of football players, it was very funny.”

As of August, Jack no longer had a fixed price gas contract. It was the beginning of the end for him. The government is helping struggling families: it has cut energy taxes and subsidized gas and electricity for some consumers. But small bakers like Jack are not covered by support programs. Dutch bakers across the country are protesting the high cost of energy every Saturday.

A few days ago, the Dutch government decided to offer cheap loans to bakers who want to convert their ovens to electricity instead of gas.

“Of course you can switch to electric ovens,” says Van Roon. – Only I would have to wait two and a half years to have a connection. We thought about buying a new oven, but that would be a year and a half investment. million euros Too much uncertainty for the 17 years of work I have left.’

There is state aid for companies that spend at least an eighth of their turnover on gas. It’s just that most bakeries are slightly below this bar, so they don’t get anything. “We’ll try to sell some of our equipment,” says Van Roon, “but we can’t wait long.” Many bakeries are closing. That’s why there are so many used bread machines on the market.”

Romania: subsidies offered by the state are not enough

From Holland to Romania. The second stop on our trip to Europe is a large bakery with 400 employees in Urlat. The state assumes part of the companies’ expenses for electricity and gas. But with limitations.

Large consumers only partially benefit from cheap energy. Therefore, Oltina bakery now has to pay the equivalent of 50,000 euros per month for electricity instead of 20,000.

“At the moment, the biggest problem is the high cost of electricity,” says Bohdan Yosyp, co-owner of the bakery, “We would like to be included in the state compensation system in terms of electricity as well.”

Cristinel Constanda is one of the employees of the bakery, he has been working there for 22 years and this is where he met his wife Cristina. Unskilled workers earn the equivalent of 450 euros per month. According to its experience, Christinel reaches 600 years.

Despite the fact that the government supports families by setting a maximum price for electricity, Christinel and Christina try to save as much as possible. “We haven’t started the gas plant yet,” says Kristinel, “we don’t have enough money.” We will try to do without them for a while.”

“I have two gas bills, one from last year and one from this year,” says Christina, “same period, same month. Last year I paid 37 lei, this year 70: double.”

To fill the fridge, the couple spends the equivalent of €120 a week. Before the crisis, 40 euros was enough for shopping.

“Bills, food, clothes, vacation: we can’t afford anything right now,” Christina admits. – Even holidays. I have never been to the beach this year. Last year I was in Bulgaria for ten days. This year we cannot include”.

The EU is looking for a difficult compromise

From Romania to Italy. Rome is the third stop of our journey among European bakers. Forno di Campo de’ Fiori is one of the oldest bakeries in the capital. Davide works here from 10 pm to 10 am. At the age of 15, he dropped out of the baker’s school.

“The stove belonged to my uncle,” says Davide, “I didn’t have a job and I didn’t want to study. After school he asked me to help him in the summer, and I ended up staying here.” .

The new government of Georgia Maloney, like the previous government of Mario Draghi, approved the aid packages. However, Davide continues to complain about high prices: “Everything is more expensive, especially in the supermarket. Someone exaggerates and takes advantage of this situation. The bad thing is that salaries never increase. Never”.

The owner of the bakery, Fabrizio Roschioli, says he is worried about his 18 workers. Due to the insane cost of materials and energy sources, he had to raise bread prices by 12%.

“From year to year, the monthly gas bill increased from 1,200 to 5,500-6,000 euros per month,” Roshioli says. The electricity bill increased from 1,500 to 5,700 euros. At the moment, the company pays about 12,000 euros per month for electricity and gas. If we were to pass that cost on to the customers, bread would probably cost as much as gold.”

The bakery is equipped with two ovens, one electric and the other gas. “We’ve turned off the electricity at this point, otherwise the bill would have been unsustainable,” Rossioli says.

Italy, Romania, France and a dozen other countries want a European gas price cap. But countries like the Netherlands and Germany are against it. A possible compromise would be for EU countries to buy gas together to limit the price.

If the energy ministers fail to reach an agreement, the heads of government will have to meet again in mid-December. One thing can be said for sure: the era of cheap gas is over forever, reports Euronews, cited by Rador.