2.5 euros for bread? Soon a reality for Hungary
Very soon, paying HUF 1000 (EUR 2.51) for one kilogram of bread will be common in Hungary. Bakers are preparing to raise the price of bread and all their other products because the price of energy is rising rapidly alongside that of raw materials.
HUF 1000 for bread
In a few weeks, even the cheapest bread will cost more than HUF 1000 a kilo, while better quality bread will cost even more, reports Telex.hu. The economic viability of bakeries is increasingly hampered by a variety of difficulties, with smaller firms finding it hard to compete. Meanwhile, the rise of craft bakeries shows that consumers’ tastes have changed in recent years, with fewer and fewer people looking for mass-produced products from large companies.
“This is the second time that the supplier has raised the price of flour recently,” the baker of Újszentiván, Attila László Kovács, told Telex. Three weeks ago, the price of the most important raw material rose by 23 percent, since then, it has risen by another 25 percent. On top of that, another price increase is expected in September.
Further price increases expected
From autumn, other ingredients, such as margarine, cheese, butter and meat, which the baker, who has been working in his profession for 30 years, uses for buns, pizzas and scones, will also become more expensive.
After the first flour price increase, he raised all his products by a tenth. However, he does not want to raise them by more than another 10-15% to avoid scaring off customers, even though his income will fall. A kilo of sourdough farmhouse bread now costs HUF 805 (EUR 2.03) at his bakery.
How much will the cheapest bread cost?
Evidently, not everyone will be able to afford to pay HUF 1000 for one kilogram of bread. There will be other options as well, however, even those will cost much more than they used to. According to forecast, the cheapest bread will be around HUF 500 (EUR 1.26), reports sokszinuvidek.24.hu.
Read alsoShops are tricking the public to hide inflation in Hungary
Source: Telex.hu, sokszinuvidek.24.hu
Bah. I was on one of my regular visits to London in 2017 and passed a baker’s shop in an area called Holborn (the legal district) and in the window a loaf of bread was 5 GBP (around 6.15 euros) back then. I have a photo to prove it. Of course it was very nice bread (I bought a loaf out of curiosity) whereas most (but not all) of the bread sold here in Budapest is rubbish. The Lehel market has one shop that sells good bread, not the usual run-of-the-mill stuff.
Orban: if there is no bread, let them eat cake…