Red alert – bakers: “Our daily bread is getting more and more expensive!”

Bakers are hit twice: in their family business they need a lot of electricity to heat the ovens and they need energy to cool the tasty food. “Practically every day, companies such as bakers or butchers contact us and sound the alarm because they can only wait until the end of the year due to the increased energy costs,” warns Wolfgang Ecker, president of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce, and Johann Ehrenberger, head of the state guild for the food industry. The companies urgently need support, otherwise there is a risk of closures and bankruptcies.

Rising raw material and fuel costs
Small and medium-sized companies, in particular, are often particularly hard hit by the current wave of inflation – and in multiple ways, as Ehrenberger explains. Rising raw material and fuel costs are also deteriorating corporate balance sheets. According to experts, the cost increases cannot be compensated by higher prices.

prevent a downward spiral
“Because customers couldn’t afford that and it would fuel inflation even further. This downward spiral must be prevented at all costs,” added President Ecker. So many bakers are currently paying it with every piece of bread – a development that everyone should be concerned about.