Food prices in Croatia have jumped by 20% over the past year, twice the average increase in the price of foodstuffs in the EU, with the price of bread going up by as much as 31%, the Vecernji List daily reported on Tuesday quoting a Eurostat report.

Croatia is one of five countries with the highest increase in the price of bread. Hungary tops the ranking, with the price of bread having gone up by 65% over the past year, followed by Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia and Croatia, with increases ranging from 31 to 33%.

Bread varies in size and type, but few cost HRK 10 (€1.33) or below, with the price of a loaf of bread most frequently ranging between HRK 13 and 15.

Bread is not among the nine food products for which the government recently slashed prices by one-third and capped them, but flour is.

It is possible the government did not want to risk possible bread shortages, to avoid the scenario of artificially generated sugar shortages, and it hopes to influence bread prices by lowering the price of flour.

Croatia actually does not depend on developments on the global grain market because it produces sufficient quantities for its own needs. The quantity of wheat produced is sufficient even for export so the increase in bread prices is mostly due to the more expensive energy, electricity and gas used by bakery ovens, the more expensive fertilisers etc.

If bakeries are granted privileged electricity and gas tariffs, that will probably make room to reduce the price of bread and bread rolls as well, the daily says, but notes that past experience shows that prices have always changed more easily to go up while price drops have always been strictly controlled.

According to a survey on household consumption in 2019, the average consumption of bread and bread rolls in Croatia is 45 kilograms per household member annually. Croatians also consume an average of 15 kilograms of flour per person a year, seven kilograms of pasta, one kilogram of breakfast cereals and two kilograms of other grain products, the daily reported.