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Why are the French losing appetite for baguettes?

The Local France
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Why are the French losing appetite for baguettes?
Photo: AFP

The French are eating over 7 percent less bread than in previous years, a new study has found.

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The baguette - a staple and iconic part of the French diet - is losing its popularity. 
 
The site of French person walking home from work  with a baguette under their arm may still be common enough but new figures show the French are eating fewer and fewer each year.
 
They ate an average of 120 grammes of bread each day in 2015 - that's nine grammes less per day than in 2014. 
 
This is a drop of 30 grammes a day compared to 2003, and a third as much as the French ate back in 1950. 
 
The revelation comes courtesy of France's national milling association (ANMF), which noted that women in 2015 ate an average of 80 to 90 grammes a day, compared to 140 grammes for the men.
 
The drop in bread consumption was explained by several factors, mainly that the French are spending less and less time on having breakfast, which traditionally includes breads, jams, and butter. 
 
The ANMF also pointed to a shift in French people's dietary habits 
 
A third reason for the change was the rising costs of bread across the country. 
 
In fact, the price of a humble baguette has shot up 24 percent over the past ten years, now costing an average of 88 centimes across the country. 
 
Another factor is that there are only around 30,000 bakeries in France today, compared to around 50,000 in the fifties, noted France 2. 
 
The association also lamented the fact that taxes on flour meant millers in Germany were able to make an export bread at a much higher rate than in France. 
 
French millers produce 4.27 million tonnes of flour a year, the association told Le Figaro newspaper.
 
 
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Photo: Serious Lunch

 

 
 

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