Rising production costs puts the squeeze on Europe's bakers

Europe’s bakers are working up a sweat and the rising production costs are becoming too hot to handle. Whether it's the local family-run business or huge industrial bakeries, the skyrocketing energy bills are an existential threat.

Euronews visited bakers in Italy, Romania and in the Netherlands to find out how they are managing the crisis. 

In the city of Delft, in the Netherlands, Jack Van Roon is closing his bakery where he has been baking bread and cakes for the local community for 19 years. He knows this because a 19-year-old customer reminds him that he made her birth cake. But the war in Ukraine and increasing inflation are putting an end to his little bakery and it's closing its doors for the last time. 

"The problem is the gas prices are going sky high. At a certain point you can’t keep up anymore. I am paying 1,400 euros per month now, soon that will be 12,000 or 13,000 euros. That’s the expectation for November and it’s impossible to go on like that." Explains Jack. 

Jack's departure puts an end to a story that has lasted almost a century. The bakery opened in 1928. A time when bread was still delivered by horse carriage. 30 years ago, his father took over the business, and a bit later Jack joined. Everyone in the neighborhood loves Jack and especially his tasty cakes, which for him was the best and most fun part of the job. 

In August, Jack switched to a variable-priced energy bill and for him, this was the beginning of the end. 

In fact, the government supports poor families, lowers energy taxes, and subsidises electricity and gas bills for some consumers. But little bakeries such as Jacks don’t fit into most support schemes.

Dutch bakers are staging protest actions all over the country and on Saturdays they turn