One of the products most appreciated by the French is weighing more and more on the budget.
+1€ here, +2€ there… The price of pizzas has increased in recent months. The most striking example is found in the frozen pizzas launched by YouTuber Mister V in February 2022. His two recipes (Six Fromagio and Royale Pouleto), sold for €3.95 a year ago, were wildly successful ( 1.5 million pizzas sold in six months). But since then, inflation has happened: €4.49 per pizza now at Auchan, €4.79 at Carrefour.
Same fate for takeaways from the “Five Pizzas” chain. The first prices are €6.90, compared to €5.90 last year, and the so-called “signature” preparations have, at the same time, gone for €2. Among restaurateurs too, the increase is being felt, with increases of 1 to 2€ for each pizza. And it’s not over.
In Nice, the manager of a pizzeria confirmed with Nice morning having raised its prices: the queen is now sold for €8. “And maybe we will have to move to €9 if this continues,” she added. “This situation is very worrying because we don’t know when it will stop. The only certainty we have is that it won’t come back down again” added a colleague in The Dispatch.
Pizza is becoming more and more expensive due to the prices of the necessary ingredients, mainly tomatoes and their derivatives. According to INSEE, the average monthly selling price of tomatoes in mainland France fell below €3 this summer, after rising to €5.14 in the spring. But it is mainly concentrate and tomato sauce that have soared: +30% in one year, an increase of 40 cents, according to a survey report. France Blue.
The prices of these products in fact depend on several factors: firstly, the cost of the raw material. On this point, imports represent 90% of tomatoes sold on the French market. However, producing countries did not harvest as much as expected in 2022 and 2023, due to climatic events. Fewer tomatoes but still as much demand: prices have therefore automatically increased.
Furthermore, making a sauce or tomato paste requires several steps, all of which consume energy. Enough to explain the increase in production costs, and therefore sales costs.
The horizon does not seem to be clearing up for tomatoes, according to Jérôme Foucault, president of the association of processed food products companies: “Current conditions do not suggest any particular relaxation on tomato-based products.” The little pleasure that was pizza now represents a real budget, especially since the trend is similar for other ingredients such as olive oil or even mozzarella. Not to mention the meat…