Inflation and energy crisis could leave Luxembourg without bread and meat

Craft businesses such as bakeries and butchers don’t know how to cope with rising resource and energy prices. A lot of electricity is used in the production of bread and meat. As those prices rose, small businesses were hit hard.

The owners of these businesses complain that it is not clear where exactly to save energy. You can’t just leave meat for a couple of hours a day without refrigeration. Or stop baking fresh bread for customers at certain hours. A butcher shop needs refrigerators and freezers to stay in business. The bakery needs ovens that work almost around the clock.

The prices of consumables are also rising. For example, packaging bags for meat have become twice as expensive, butchers say.

All this reduces the already low (1% -3%) profit margin. What to do with a business that is rapidly losing profitability, bakers and butchers do not yet know. But transferring these costs to the consumer is difficult. Who’s ready to pay 2.5 euros for a baguette?

So far, to survive small businesses are coming up with deals to satisfy everyone: 3 baguettes for 2.5 euros, for example. And all the while they fearfull expects new complications that can prove crippling or fatal.