The Price of Things

We had been warned that everything had got very expensive in Australia in the last couple of years, since we were last there. I can't say I noticed it especially, but there were a few things that were significantly more expensive than in France, like diesel (and some, like petrol, which is cheaper).

Whilst restaurant and takeaway meals seem to be around a third dearer in Australia than in France, it was staples like sugar and milk which really astonished us with the price difference between the two countries.

 Audi, my sister-in-law Rosie's dog, eyes off the coconut macaroons I have just made with some very expensive Australian sugar.

 
Both France and Australia are sugar producing countries. In France, sugar beet is widely grown in the north, even after 45% of sugar beet growers have withdrawn from the industry in the last 6 years. The beets are fully refined into sugar in France. The price to growers is set by the European Commission, and they operate under a quota system, but the retail price is not controlled. I pay 89 euro cents a kilo (the equivalent of AUD$1.10). Growers can produce more than their quota and the price for the beets sold outside the quota is not regulated, but these beets cannot go into the production chain for refined sugars. Instead they are sold to the industrial chemical or pharmaceutical processors. Imported cane sugar, especially from less developed countries and former French colonies is equally available, and is offered favourable trade arrangements so it is extremely competitive. Since 2006 France has become a net importer of sugar.

In Australia sugar cane is widely grown in the north east, but it is only processed to the raw sugar stage before being shipped offshore for refining. Sugar is one of Australia's biggest export products. Sugar beet is not grown at all. The 2kg bag purchased in Canberra that you see in the photo above cost me AUD$4.60 (ie $2.30 / kg or the equivalent of €1.85 / kg -- more than twice what I pay in France). Mind you, this does seem to have been particularly expensive sugar -- the same product in the same supermarket chain but in a small country town in Queensland was 90 cents a kilo cheaper.

The pasturised homogenised fresh milk I purchased at the same time cost me $1.90 a litre (€1.53), whereas in France I pay €0.80¢ ($0.99¢) for raw milk direct from the producer (it's up to 10 euro cents dearer in the supermarket, and UHT, not fresh). In Australia, dairy farmers have quotas, are locked in to selling to designated processors (it is illegal to sell raw milk) and are paid between 13 and 18 cents per litre (friends of mine receive 14 cents a litre for their milk). UHT milk is widely available in Australia, but not consumers first choice (only being purchased when shelflife is important). The price is unregulated, and set by the processors, who are effectively controlled by the big supermarkets. At this price, the farmers are not breaking even, and many are handing in their quotas (as my friends plan to do).

France also currently uses a quota system to control the market, although this is due to end in 2015. The price farmers receive is not officially regulated, but there is a regularly reviewed recommended price proposed by representatives from the industry (including the farmers themselves). It is currently around 34 euro cents ($0.42) and processors (such as the giant Danone) stick fairly closely to it when purchasing milk. Even so, producers say that the real cost of production is around 42 euro cents a litre and there was a dramatic protest in Brussels in November while we were away, when dairy farmers from all over the EU came to town and sprayed the European Parliament building (and riot police) with milk.

In both countries, dairy farmers can choose to exceed their quotas, but the extra milk cannot be sold as milk, but only go to make milk products such as powdered milk or the various dairy bulking agents widely used in the food industry. Naturally, the price to the producer is lower for this ex-quota milk. The milk I bought in Australia was not the cheapest. One of the big supermarkets, Coles, notoriously uses milk as a loss leader, and sells it for $1 a litre (80 euro cents, the same as I pay in France). Of course, in this situation, it is not the supermarket or the processors who are bearing the loss, but the dairy farmers. Milk is never used as a loss leader in France -- there would be no point -- French people don't consume enough of the stuff.

**************************************************

More Bakery News:  This time from the horse's mouth -- I spoke to the baker's wife, who runs the shop and she said they simply weren't getting enough custom. It's clearly been too long between the closure of Pichard's bakery and the new baker taking over, and people have decided to stick with the Merles now they've got into the habit of going down the hill. The new bakers are going to continue to bake and open the shop until the end of the month, then it is closed, définitif.

Back to Two Bakers

 Hot news! A new baker has taken over the premises 'up the hill' that was shut when the Pichard family business went into liquidation.

 So far we've tried the baguette and the banette -- both crispy crusted and chewy inside -- very good. At the moment he's not up to full baking capacity, so the bread runs out very quickly in the morning. I noticed the locals commenting on the cakes approvingly, but my guess is that Aurélien 'down the hill' will remain the town's favourite pâtissier.

The exterior of the shop looks no different but they have cleaned and painted the interior and it is all sparkling clean. They are open Tuesdays to Sunday mornings.

Bad News on the Bakery Front

Yesterday when I called in for our daily bread there was a notice stuck to the counter explaining that the bakery was in liquidation and would open for the last time on Tuesday. The other customer in there at the same time as me is a young woman much the same age as Carene Pichard, who runs the bakery with her husband. The two of them have always appeared to be on quite friendly terms, but she was as shocked as me to hear the news.

Carene herself seemed calm and matter of fact about it. I suspect it was a relief to have it out in the open and the end in sight. I did not attempt to get any real details from her, but based on a conversation we had some time ago, I presume it brings to an end an ongoing dispute with their landlord (they don't own the bakery premises) about who should spend the money to upgrade the plumbing and other problems. The landlord would have been perfectly happy for them to plough their money into his real estate and improve it, but he wasn't interested in even meeting them halfway with the expenses, or giving them any sort of equity, and they felt it was too much of a risk.

As far as the Pichard's are concerned, it may well be the best thing that could have happened. It leaves Jean-Luc free to get a salaried job as a baker in one of the big supermarkets. This would give the family financial security and according to Carene, the bakery departments at the big Auchan and Leclerc supermarkets are proper boulangeries ie making the bread from scratch, not from frozen dough. At some stage they may move to Le Blanc, where Carene's family lives, but for the moment it seems they will stay in Preuilly and keep the children in school here (parents of primary school age children will be relieved, as it is always worrying when numbers drop in small rural schools). I suppose they will move house though, as they currently live over the shop.

As it happens I had a conversation with their boy (Florian I think his name is...) on Bastille evening. He asked me what I was doing when he saw me heaving a shutter up onto a side door of the house. He was just passing with a group of kids, including his sister, armed with bangers and cigarette lighters (which he proudly showed me). I would guess he's about 7 or 8. He and his big sister are confident, polite and lively children, easily recognised around town by their white blond hair and alabaster pale skin, and often in the shop 'helping'. Their parents too are involved in town life outside of the bakery. Both of them help with fundraising events for the school and I am always having to come up with good excuses as to why I can't attend fundraising belote (a card game) or loto (bingo) gatherings with Carene - ce n'est pas mon truc.

As far as the customers are concerned, it will mean going to the other boulangerie patisserie in town for 5 days of the week, and using the depot de pain at the Vival supermarket on the baker's day off. We will probably make our own bread on these days. Their part time employee, who only works a day and a half a week, can't have been earning very much, but I don't know what her situation is, so I don't know how much it will impact on her.

According to someone I ran into on the way home, the third bakery in town only closed in about 2003 or 04. A few years later, it was one of the places we looked at when we were house hunting. It would have been a real challenge to renovate, and is right on the main road, so it is a good thing we didn't buy it (we almost did). It seems incredible that a town with a population of under a thousand could support more than one bakery, much less two or even three.

Susan