You may have noticed it yourself: bread and pastry prices have not gone down, despite energy prices that have taken a dip after the energy crisis. In some cases, a loaf of bread will set you back 3 euros or more. "Prices in your local bakery will not go down again."
Bart Ceulemans of the Federation of Bakers has an easy answer to why bread and pastry prices are not going down despite lower energy prices. "Electricity and gas prices have nothing to do with it. It's all about higher wages and raw materials that got more expensive. All this is being paid by the customer."
But wasn't it Ceulemans himself who told reporters in April 2022 that prices were bound to drop once the energy crisis would be over? "We should have the courage and the guts to lower bread prices again. Bakers also prefer that everything will get back to normal", Ceulemans was quoted as saying at that stage.
However, he was criticised by his own federation for that quote afterwards: "I should not have said that, but I wanted to do something back for the population", Mr Ceulemans told the VRT today.
"Bread will only become more expensive"
In fact, it is the other way around. Bread will only become more expensive in the future. "Bakers would like to offer a lower price, but wages have gone up 12 percent and raw materials (such as wheat, sugar, chocolate and butter) became more expensive. As long as wages won't drop, it won't happen."