Bread is 30 cents more expensive, mainly due to energy costs

Since 2004 there is no longer a fixed price for bread and the bakers themselves decide how much to order for a loaf of bread. Bakkers Vlaanderen calculates a reference selling price each year, the so-called bakery index, which includes the most important cost-price elements of a loaf.

The increase in the sales price in 2022, by 13 percent to 2.7 euros, compared to 2.39 in 2021, is mainly due to increased energy costs and to a lesser extent to an increase in raw material costs. According to Bakers Flanden, raw materials prices are rising by 12 percent due to the Corona crisis and the war in Ukraine. But energy costs rose by 258 per cent.

True, the energy cost component of the bakery index weighs less than raw materials, 5 percent compared to 26 percent. Other cost components included in the weighted average index are sales wages (25 percent), production wages (18 percent) and overhead costs (26 percent). These portions also increase, but in a less severe way.

Bakkers Vlaanderen stresses that the data is purely informational and based on average prices. It appears on the union’s website that “every baker should make his own calculations”.