A group of bakers gathered to protest against the explosion in electricity prices has seized the Council of State for the tariff shield, which limits the rise to 15% for some, to extend it to all bakers, said this Wednesday its attorney in a statement. . Bakers, whose activity consumes a lot of energy, are especially mobilized and some had already demonstrated at the end of January to ask for more help from the Government, after weeks of rallies and arrests.
This initiative comes from the Union of Independent Artisan Bakers, recently created by nine bakers from all over France to “notify the public authorities and obtain concrete aid from the government” to face the rise in prices, which have multiplied by “4 to 10”.
“Since 2020, artisan bakers have had to face the Covid-19 pandemic in quick succession, which has caused a spectacular drop in their turnover due to confinement, with a rise in the price of raw materials (in butter and wheat in particular) and a rise in energy prices”, they explain in the text.
The electric damper considered too complex
According to them, the measures put in place by the government are insufficient and create “a distortion of competition among artisan bakers who consume less than 36 kVA, who can benefit from the tariff shield that limits the increase by 2023 to 15%, and craftsmen – bakers with a power greater than 36kVA are excluded”.
For the latter, the government has announced an “electric shock absorber” that benefits SMEs and a price cap of €280 per megawatt hour for energy-intensive VSEs. According to the executive’s estimates, the damper should relieve contractors between 15-20% of their electricity bill, which is paid by the state.
But for the group of bakers, its implementation is “of such complexity that not even the electricity providers know how to use it” and the beneficiaries must also advance the costs “without having the certainty of receiving the promised aid one day.” Thus, they fear temporary closures, layoffs and, consequently, less coverage in certain territories, in the face of competition from large-scale distribution. His lawyer, Christophe Lèguevaques, indicates that he has presented a provisional order with the aim of extending the benefit of the “tariff shield” to all artisan bakers.
Source: BFM TV
