French bakers on Monday staged an angry march through the streets of Paris to demand the government step up financial support to compensate for hikes in electricity bills and the cost of raw materials such as flour, sugar and butter.
Bakers are among the small French businesses not protected by government-imposed tariff caps on energy prices. As a result they complain their months bills have multiplied by up to 10 times the normal amount.
Calling for "tariff caps for all", the Collective for the Survival of Bakers and Crafts led a procession of bakers from Place de la Nation, in the east of the capital, to the Finance Ministry in Bercy.
"There have been significant increases in the cost of raw materials since September, while electricity bills have already closed down the most fragile businesses," co-founder of the collective, Frederic Roy, told Sud Radio.
Roy wants bakers to benefit from the same 15 percent tariff cap the government has granted to individual households.
Businesses battling
Bakers say they’ve been forced to drastically reduce their margins, laying off staff and putting up the price of baguettes in order to cope.
While the government has put in place various aid packages for the country’s 33,0000 bakers, those in the industry say most are missing out because the process of accessing aid is too complicated.
Catherine Maillard, who managers a bakery in the upmarket Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret told Europe 1 radio that 80 percent of bakers were not even eligible for aid.
Meanwhile Vincent Chartier, a baker from the north-western town of Mayenne, said passing on huge prices increases to customers would be detrimental to the business.
"If we doubled the price of a baguette, we would sell fewer baguettes - and if we sell fewer baguettes we need fewer employees," Chartier told France Bleu.
Without the usual margins, Chartier said his business could not invest in new equipment, upgrade existing machines or buy new molds.
Union steps in
According to a report by RMC, the CGT energy union in the southern city of Marseille has been providing bakers in distress with 60 percent cheaper electricity.
Conceding the practice of "manipulating the meter" fell foul of the law, the union said the move remained "completely moral" even if it was "completely illegal".
Despite widespread anger from bakers in regions across France, the president of the National Confederation of French Bakeries, Dominique Anract, confirmed he was not among those protesting.
French bakers enjoyed more government support than bakers elsewhere in the world, Anract told Ouest-France.
"We are working with the presidents of our 96 federations to explain the aid, the terms and conditions, everything we can do," Anract said, adding that negotiations with the government were still ongoing.
"People have the right to demonstrate, but many of them are not informed and think it is complicated. It's case by case."
