Though inflation has eased slightly (or so they say) since peaking last spring, exorbitant and ever-rising energy costs in France are killing the nation’s baking industry, which many would describe as the lifeblood of France’s cultural and social heritage.
Between December and January, Elodie Chavret, a bakery owner and part-time firefighter in the small town of Millery, saw her energy bills increase nearly tenfold, an increase so massive that she described it as “unmanageable.”
When Chavret went to renew her business contract for the year, her electric bill skyrocketed from less than $1,000 per month to more than $8,100 per month. Imagine having to pay that much more just to keep your business open!
On top of that, Chavret has had to increase wages for her six employees, as well as pay double the price for butter and triple the price for wheat. All this plus increased gas prices have made the situation “unbearable” to the point that Chavret may have to close down her business.
France is collapsing into oblivion because of its support for Ukraine
Another French bakery owner by the name of Nicolas Amate, who owns and operate a bake shop in Lons-le-Saunier with his wife Nadege, is suffering similar problems that threaten the viability of his business as well.
“Everything has gone up,” Amate told the media. “If this continues, we will all close.”
Even if inflation really was cooling like the government claims, input prices are still through the roof. French industrial producer prices, or the prices that suppliers charge other businesses, have increased 13 percent year over year as of February.
How high can they go before something gives? How much longer can French small businesses afford to pay 10 times the amount for energy and two-to-three times as much for their bakery inputs, not to mention higher wages and higher fuel costs, before the entire French economy collapses?
There is only so much energy that businesses can conserve to try to offset these massive price increases. And customers are increasingly less willing to pay exorbitantly higher prices for the end product as well, which is a recipe for economic collapse.
The French government is offering a subsidy program to help offset the increase in energy costs, but it is not nearly enough to make a difference. This “shock absorber” payment only provides about a 20 percent cut on a bakery’s annual energy costs, which is a drop in the buck compared to the 1,000 percent increases many are now seeing.
There have been a few baker-led protests in recent months, but little has actually been accomplished in terms of stopping all the bleeding. Many bakeries are having to shut down, and many more will continue to shut down, as the money pit known as support for Ukraine drains the West of its economic lifeblood.
“If the bakeries closed, we would lose that human side, that side of communication, of mutual aid,” Chavret lamented about the social cost of France’s failing economy. “It’s not in department stores that people take the time to talk.”
In the comments, someone noted that what is currently happening in France will eventually reach the United States, which is headed in the same exact direction right now.
“Coming to a globalist-sponsored city near you,” this person wrote.
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