Rusty Donworth the owner of the French Baker in Greytown. PHOTO/FILE
BECKIE WILSON
For a Greytown bakery that uses up to 100kg of butter a week, the spike in price of the dairy commodity, will soon affect what customers pay.
A block of butter now costs 60 per cent more than it did this time last year.
New World has a special on a 500g block of Tararua butter selling for $6.59.
Countdown’s prices vary from $5.90 for its Signature Range Butter, to $7.60 for Mainland 500g.
Dairy Companies Association chairman Malcolm Bailey says consumers here pay more when international demand for the country’s dairy products increased.
Rusty Donworth who owns The French Baker in Greytown said despite the the increasing cost of butter, he had held back from putting hiking up the prices of his gourmet products.
Mr Donworth, whose bakery serves up French delights such as croissants and danishes, said the price jump was “considerable” when using up to 100kg of butter a week.
But he will not substitute margarine for butter – he did not want to sacrifice the quality and taste of his pastries.
Mr Donworth has owned the bakery for about three years and had never before seen butter at such prices.
Cheese prices went through the roof a couple of years ago, but has come back down now, he said.
He admitted that it will not be long until he raised prices of the bakery’s products.
But when the global price of butter decreased, he would lower his prices.
“Because there has been a heightened awareness of the price increase, people will be more of understanding of [the bakery’s] price increase – it is not coming totally out of the blue.”
Masterton New World store manager Ivan Birch said there had been no price increase on the store’s bakery goods due to the butter price increase.
Breadcraft sales and marketing manager Chris Petersen said the company used “little to no butter” in their products.
“[It] hasn’t really impacted us, but we certainly feel for others who do in this difficult market,” he said.
