From Boston Globe via MSN, October 19:
VERDELOT, France — Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the price of the wheat that Julien Bourgeois grinds for boulangeries at his family’s flour mill in central France has increased more than 30 percent. The bill for the electricity needed to run the mill has tripled. Even the price of paper used for flour sacks has hit the stratosphere.
All of which are driving up the price of a loaf of bread.
“Inflation is brutally high,” said Bourgeois, inspecting the mill’s mammoth crushers as they ground wheat into flour. He has urged the 1,000 bakeries that his company, Moulins Bourgeois, supplies to mark up the iconic French baguette by 10 cents, from a current range of one euro to 1.30 euros ($1.27), to offset the higher costs that he has had to pass along.
“Consumers can afford to pay more for now, but prices will keep rising,” Bourgeois said. “It’s worrisome.” In France, where baguettes already cost more than 8 percent than they did a year ago, he added: “We remember that the revolution started over the price of bread.”
As inflation continues to flare across Europe, few matters are causing more concern than the cost of a basic loaf. Prices for the most essential food staple have never been higher, and are now up nearly 19 percent from a year ago, the fastest rise on record, Eurostat, Europe’s statistics agency, said in a report released Wednesday.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has been a major factor behind the increase, Eurostat said, by roiling energy markets and driving up prices for grains, oilseeds, and fertilizers.
That has contributed to a broader sticker shock for food and other necessities. In Europe, consumer prices rose at a rapid pace in September from a year ago, climbing 10.1 percent in Britain and by nearly 11 percent across the European Union. The cost of food jumped by nearly 16 percent in the EU and more than 14 percent in Britain, while energy prices surged by around 40 percent across both.
High consumer prices are a concern in the United States as well. The pace of inflation, near a four-decade high, remains elevated even as the Federal Reserve has tried to cool the economy. Even there, the price of bread has jumped 15 percent from year ago.
The broad nature of inflation is feeding into the anxiety of policymakers and economists that price rises are becoming embedded and will prove harder to contain.
Food companies are passing along higher costs. On Wednesday, the global food giant Nestlé said it had raised prices 9.5 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, up from a 7.7 percent increase in the previous quarter.
When the price of bread rises, people feel it right away. The squeeze has been sharpest in countries nearest to the conflict zone, especially Hungary, where the cost of a basic loaf surged in September by 77 percent from a year ago, according to Eurostat. In Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia, bread prices are up more than 30 percent.....
....MUCH MORE
I wasn't trying to be cute with last week's :
If you've never studied mid/late 18th century French economic history it can be summarized as:
Food got expensive.
There were riots.
(oh, and Necker)
Pericles Press: France - The Economic History
—Chronology of Economic Events
1768
Riots over prices in Le Havre and Nantes. 1770
Riots in Rheims. 1774
Government efforts to deal with shortages lead to popular rumors of a 'famine pact' among the nobility to starve the people.
May 10 - Louis XVI ascends to throne of France. 1775
Poor harvest in the fall.
April 27-May - "Flour War"
Bread prices in Paris increase by over 50%..
Rioting starts at Beaumont-sur-Oise, spreads to Paris..
Hundreds arrested, two executed, before order is restored.
June 11 - Coronation of Louis XVI.
....MUCH MORE
Related:
"Will the energy crisis spell the end for German bakeries?"
"Soaring egg prices force French food industry to change recipes"
