French bakeries struggle as Iran war spikes oil prices: Its catastrophic

As the lights of their small bakery flicker on in the early morning darkness, Kevin and Sandrine Luce’s oven is already cranked up to 270 degrees Celsius (518 degrees Fahrenheit) to give their latest batch of baguettes a crunchy crust.When the couple first fired up the oven in their store in Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, a small town about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Paris, in March, they paid 2,230 euros ($2,540) for 2,000 liters (528 gallons) of the heating oil that it burns.Last week, they spent almost the same amount on just 1,200 liters (317 gallons).Fuel prices that have spiked since the start of the Iran war on Feb.

28 are dealing a hard blow to the couple and other small businesses across Europe.“Originally, it was a good deal, because initially, a fuel-heated oven is more economical than an electric one,” Kevin Luce said.“That is until the price (of fuel) increased by 50%.

So, yes, now it’s not a good deal.”The Luces aren’t alone.There are more than 34,000 bakers across France churning out around 6 billion baguettes each year, according to the national federation of bakeries and patisseries, which says that about one quarter of them use oil- or gas-fired ovens.As customers filed through the bakery for their morning baguettes, croissants and other pastries, Luce told The Associated Press that “all this superfluous expenditure on energy represents a loss of earnings.

It’s salary we can’t take, it’s salary increases we can’t give to our employees.It’s investments we can’t make.”Although inflicting pain globally, the energy crisis is biting particularly hard in the rural expanses and communities of the European Union’s largest country by area.

The roughly 21 million people who live in the countryside — about a third of the French population — often rely on cars to get around, because public transportation is limited.Rural areas make up nearly 90% of France’s territory.The so-called yellow vest protest movement, which ...