This Is Why Croissants Are Getting So Expensive

You can credit the beautiful flakiness of croissants to the sheer amount of butter that goes into them. Like, we’re talking a lot of butter. In fact, as the Daily Meal points out, though recipes vary, most good croissants are made of at least 25 percent butter. That’s the reason why it’s probably not the healthiest to have them every day—but if you’re in Paris, screw “healthy,” right? Alas, the price of croissants is spiking recently, thanks to that very component. The Local reports that since May of last year, the price of butter has jumped an alarming amount—from €3 ($3.36) to €5.37 (about $6) per kilogram.

The reason for the price jump is because of a milk shortage. Because cheese and cream are considered more of a priority than butter, butter keeps on getting more expensive in the face of the milk shortage. "These levels of prices have never been seen," said French baker federation spokesperson Armelle Favre to The Local.

Favre, who is in charge of communications for the federation, added that the milk shortage is a result of "a strong demand in Asian countries for milk.”

“Today, the shortage has been slightly curbed but milk is used for cheese and cream as a priority, not for butter," he said. But there's still hope. The federation is asking the dairy industry to provide more milk for butter production for lower croissant prices. Unfortunately, though, they're also calling for an increase on croissants sold to large distributors, which would mean a price-hike for us, too.

Luckily, croissants are pretty much always worth it.