Following the adoption, on October 23, by the National Assembly of the amendment “Tax on added sugars in processed food products”, the main artisanal organizations in the sugar sector united to warn about the risks of this new taxation for craftsmen and small businesses. Among them, the National Confederation of French Bakery-Pâtisserie (CNBPF), under the presidency of Dominique Anract, is firmly opposed to this measure which could threaten the sustainability of many professionals and weaken their economic balance..
A press conference was held on October 30 at the Salon du Chocolat, bringing together representatives of seven key organizations in the sector: bakers, pastry chefs, chocolatiers and ice cream makers gathered to express their concern. This mobilization, driven by the CNBPF and other associations such as the Confédération des Chocolatiers de France, Artisan Pâtissier de France, and the Confédération des Glaciers de France, aims to defend artisans against this tax perceived as unfair and penalizing.
Dominique Anract, for his part, warned of the potential consequences of this new taxation on artisans, but also on consumers.
“This additional tax will inevitably be reflected in sales prices, making artisanal products even less accessible,” he said. Indeed, if this measure is applied, the symbolic products of artisanal baking, such as pastries and pastries, could see their prices increase, to the detriment of the purchasing power of the French, already under pressure…
A sector already weakened by the surge in production costs
The addition of a tax on sugar comes on top of a series of cost increases which is already putting artisans under pressure. Artisan bakers and pastry chefs have been facing a spectacular increase in the price of butter for several months, due to the drop in milk production caused by the bluetongue epidemic.
This scourge affects a large part of livestock in France and caused the price of a kilo of pasteurized butter to jump from €5.80 in October 2023 to €8.70 last September. Added to this surge in costs is also the rise in the price of cocoa, the price of which has exploded by 130% in one year due to poor harvests linked to drought in the main producing countries.
Butter and cocoa, two other items which are increasing…
For artisan bakers and pastry chefs, these increases are already heavy to bear. The burden of an additional tax on added sugars could become untenable for many artisans who struggle to maintain competitive prices while preserving the quality of their products.
Because to the equation, we must add that of the soaring prices of butter and cocoa, which are a hard blow to the profession… A situation which the president of the CNBPF also echoed:
