More than 3,000 bakeries, pastry shops and sales outlets have closed in the last 30 months in Greece, with traditional baking “on the edge of the cliff,” says the Association of Bakery and Pastry Businesses (E.EP.A.Z.).
E.EP.A.Z. says businesses are suffocating and stresses that positions and proposals of theirs “which were mocked and dismissed when they were presented publicly, are now being adopted by the very people who criticised them then.”
As the main problems, they cite huge price increases in raw materials (100%–400%), energy costs (double compared with pre-2020), and new tax obligations that have been imposed on businesses (e.g., additional expenses for digitising financial procedures).
E.EP.A.Z. says that positions and proposals of theirs that were dismissed when they were presented are now being adopted by their then critics.
As the main problems, they cite huge price increases in raw materials (100%–400%), energy costs (double compared with pre-2020), and new tax obligations that have been imposed on businesses (e.g., additional expenses for digitising financial procedures).
It also proposes, among other things, the “designation of the bakery–pastry sector as a protected sector, so that the bakery/pastry shop can be highlighted and safeguarded as a business with a cultural dimension and special social significance for Greece,” and the “shaping of a legislative framework that takes into account the sector’s particular characteristics, is simple and functional, and eliminates over-legislation and overlapping competences that create conditions of illegality.”
Source: To Vima
