Mar 4, 2008 5:24 pm US/Central
Rising Wheat Costs Putting Pinch On Pizzerias
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Chicago loves its pizza, whether it's deep dish or thin crust. But now it takes more money to make a pie and that's putting a pinch on consumers.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports at Trattoria D.O.C. in Evanston, they bake their pizza in a wood fired oven, but the prices for their ingredients are also on fire.
The restaurant is spending $8,000 more per year on mozzarella cheese alone.
"Wheat was very inexpensive to begin with and it was a product no one thought about," said Lucia Mazzocchetti of Trattoria D.O.C.
But in the past year the price of wheat flour has jumped from 20 cents to nearly 50 cents a pound.
"Now it's part of our food cost, it used to never be part of our food cost," Mazzocchetti said.
By the time they're finished paying for all these increased costs business owners are being forced to raise prices because there's so little of the pie left.
The family-run Trattoria D.O.C. has raised individual pizza prices from roughly $12 to $13.
The numbers are staggering across town at Home Run Inn Pizza, with fresh and frozen pizza sales in 22 states. They're spending $70,000 more per week on cheese and another $15,000 each week on flour. Their $8 frozen pies cost $1.50 more to produce now, but they feel they can only pass a third of that along to consumers.
Wheat prices are giving rise to concerns for bread bakers too.
"Through the roof, absolutely and there's no stopping it," said Jory Downer of Bennesen's Bakery in Evanston. "We don't know how far it's gonna go."
Breadmakers blame, among other things, the increased acreage devoted to corn for bio fuels that limits their supply of wheat for flour, forcing wheat dependant businesses to raise prices in a struggling economy.
"It's always rough when the economy turns this way and you have to pass on increases to you customers," Mazzocchetti said.
The Retail Bakers of America and the American Bakers Association say the price of wheat has reached a crisis point, and they're planning a march on Washington next Wednesday, asking for some relief from the Department of Agriculture.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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