Bakers buttered thin, prices to rise
Customers will soon start paying more for pastries, cakes and pies, according to the NZ Baking Industry Association.
President Kevin Gilbert said the increasing cost of dairy products, crucial in baking, have been absorbed by bakeries till now, but it had become unsustainable.
The average price of butter has risen 62 per cent, from $3.50 to $5.67, between October 2016 and October this year, Statistics New Zealand said. On Thursday, the cheapest price at Countdown and New World was $5.90.
Gilbert said consumers were likely to pay more in small, suburban, bakeries, however supermarkets and chain bakeries could afford to absorb the cost.
They had three options, he said: pass the cost on, absorb the cost further or look at alternatives and compromise quality.
The rise in butter price would affect ‘‘basically anything you want to have with a cup of tea’’, which meant sweet and savoury pies and pastries, and some breads.
‘‘We’ve been absorbing [rises in cost] for a few years now. We’re going to have to put our prices up.
‘‘A croissant is 25 per cent butter. It’s not just going to be a few cents.’’
Some bakers Gilbert spoke to have been looking at alternatives to butter, such as margarine, however that could compromise flavour. Gilbert, who owned Gilbert’s Fine Foods in Dunedin, would be raising his prices.
‘‘We’re going to stand firm and staunch to our ethics. We’re now having to ask the customer.
‘‘There are going to be a lot of bakers out there who have been taking the strain, but can’t take it anymore.’’
Wanaka’s Pembroke Patisserie co-owner Kirsty Schmutsch said a price-rise is looming for the artisan bakery, because butter is a crucial ingredient and not getting cheaper. Prices would go up ‘‘fairly soon’’.
‘‘[We] have been trying to make savings through other ingredients as much as we can in the hope that it will go down. It hasn’t,’’ Schmutsch said.
‘‘As much as we love what we do, we can’t do it for free. We’ve got a family to feed too,’’ she said.
Coupland’s Bakeries managing director Lance Coupland said the business lost hundreds of thousands of dollars as the price rose over the past 10 months because of the rise, but absorbed it.
‘‘What we’ve been doing is looking at our business overall. We’ve been looking at areas of cutting cost and waste, without losing quality,’’ Coupland said.
‘‘I’m looking forward to it coming back down, believe me.’’
Bakeries in supermarkets would be less prone to the rise in costs, because goods made in store largely do not contain butter.
Bakers Delight said: ‘‘As a primary ingredient, we do not use butter in our bakeries,’’ but the popular chain wouldn’t elaborate on the alternatives it used.
Its croissants were manufactured elsewhere, the chain said but the contract manufacturer was working ‘‘to minimise the cost impact to our products’’.
Gilbert said companies could use margarine, lard or oils which would compromise flavour.