Blackout of artisan ovens: bakers announce strikes due to high energy prices

The 15-minute strikes called by the CEOPAN employers’ association will take place throughout Spain on October 28 1,2,000 artisan bread manufacturing establishments in Spain that employ some 190,000 bakers The cost of electricity has tripled, while the price of flour has risen 80% “Without light there is no bread”. Under this motto, the traditional bakeries of Spain, grouped in the CEOPPAN employers’ association, will support a 15-minute strike on October 28. The strikes will take place between 12 noon and 12 fifteen so that consumers are also aware of that bread artisans barely have a profit margin and are on the verge of ruin. Costs skyrocketing The cost of electricity has tripled, while the price of flour (an ingredient that accounts for between 12% and 15% of the total cost of bread) has skyrocketed by 80%. Wheat for baking went from costing 200 euros per ton in January 2019 to 340 euros in January 2022, with peaks of up to 425 euros. According to CEOPPAN figures, the sector – which includes bakery or pastry producers – employs 336,000 workers in Spain through 15,000 manufacturers and 45,000 points of sale. Closure of premises “It’s been nothing since three emblematic bakeries have closed in the province of Vizcaya, another two in Valencia and one in Soria”, recalls the president of the employer’s association of artisan bakers (Ceopan), Eduardo Villar. Behind this trickle, There are still 12,000 artisanal bread manufacturing premises in Spain that employ some 190,000 bakers, a trade that “may be in danger of extinction,” says Villar. As in all crises, there are structural factors, such as the lack of generational change , and very specific conjunctural, in this case, the “bestial” rise in inputs, from flour, to gas and especially electricity. “In my bakery I have gone from having an electricity bill of 1,600 to paying 5,100 euros” , Villar exemplifies, an increase that “obviously cannot be passed on to the final price.” Given the dramatic situation they are experiencing and which has led them to call a “blackout” of their ovens as a sign of protest, they want to talk to the Minister of Agriculture Culture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, at the meeting that they have requested to find solutions “before it is too late”. No generational change And it is that despite the push of the artisan bakers, with families linked to this task for generations, “It can happen like with other trades, since it is easier to change a piece of furniture than to fix it because there are no carpenters.” Regarding the lack of young people to stand in front of the oven, Villar points out that the machinery already makes the task and family reconciliation much easier, but that despite the efforts to work with the hundred bakery schools, “we have not finished reaching young people.” This situation of “economic suffocation” coincides with one of the best stages in the creative and artistic facet of the bakery Spanish; “The Spanish bakery is at a fabulous level, it even has more international renown than that of France,” says the president of the guild.