Marionberry scones, chocolate cookies, custom cakes, and other buttery treats may cost more in the next month or so as Vancouver bakeries struggle to keep up with steep increases in butter prices.
“For a small business, if customers see an increase in price it’s because we have to. We’re not increasing the price to make more money — just to cover the cost,” said Melissa Layman, owner of River Maiden coffee shop in Vancouver.
The average price of butter rose over 40 percent in early January. Butter prices are based on trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and suppliers use that as a basis for sales cost. A fire at a Darigold plant in Caldwell, Idaho, on Oct. 12 caused a four-month shutdown. The company’s website describes this plant as “one of the largest butter churns in the U.S., producing bulk and specialty retail butter.”
Partial butter production resumed at the Idaho plant in early February. Costs to bring in refrigerated freight to the Pacific Northwest to make up for the drop in regional supply is extremely expensive due to a lack of drivers and escalating fuel costs. All of this has created higher production costs for local bakers who rely on a large supply of this churned dairy product for their baked goods.
Kalina Pence, owner of micro-bakery Chocolate + Flour, wonders how long her business will be sustainable under the constraints of this increase in an essential product. Pence works out of a small kitchen in her home and sells custom baked goods directly to customers as well as slices of cake at pop-ups in Seasons Coffee Ridgefield.
For the last few months, she’s gone to Costco, WinCo and a chef’s outlet store in Portland to look for the best prices. Despite these efforts, the cost of butter has nearly doubled. This greatly affects her bottom line. Each cake she bakes requires three pounds of butter, a batch of scones needs four to five pounds. In order to stay in business, Pence must pass some of this cost increase on to her customers. “I’m honestly worried that it will be so expensive that people won’t order things from me.” she said.
In addition, Pence’s business is squeezed by the requirements of Washington’s cottage food laws which allow only $25,000 in sales per year. Due to this sales limit, if she increases her prices she will be forced to sell fewer products.
Stepanie McNees of Treat Bakery has noticed a steep increase in the price of the European butter she uses for her baked goods. In December, a 36-pound case cost $117, the current price is from $150-$175. She goes through two cases a week.
McNees attributes the increase to challenges facing the dairy industry, which include increases in fuel costs, higher prices for feed for cows, and labor issues in production and among truck drivers that transport their products. The situation was so bad last summer that there were weeks when McNees couldn’t get butter.
Despite these challenges, McNees remains positive. She believes that since butter is traded on the commodity market, after this difficult time the price will go down and level out. In addition, as warmer weather arrives, she will transition from baking to making ice cream and won’t have to source as much butter.
“We don’t do as much baking in the summer. We’re more ice cream-centric during that part of the year,” she said.
At River Maiden, the increasing costs of butter and uncertain supply has caused their bakers to experiment. When the butter they normally use became unavailable, they had to try other kinds of butter, leading to mixed results.
“We’ll know instantly if butter is affecting the bake,” said Layman, “the butterfat in a product will affect how pastries brown and spread. We bake a batch with the new butter then adjust the recipe or switch to another brand.”
River Maiden currently uses Cremerie Classique butter and Layman hopes that this butter will continue to be available and the price will level out. She’s reluctant to increase the price of baked goods in her shop, but if the cost of butter continues to rise she’ll have to raise prices just to cover the cost.
“We always try to keep prices the same as long as we can. A lot of times the increased cost of ingredients isn’t enough to pass it on to customers, but if these increases continue customers will have to pay more,” Layman said.
