Inflation Forces Parisian Vendors to Raise Prices on Staples

PARIS — At the Marché d’Aligre, a bustling open-air food and antiques market in the Bastille district of central Paris, Mohamed Sharif grabbed a piece of chalk and reluctantly marked up the price of the fragrant Valencia clementines that he sells to throngs of shoppers.

Transport costs for produce imported to France had more than doubled since autumn amid a surge in gasoline prices, he said, one of several factors that have driven up wholesale costs for oranges from Spain, lychee from south China and passion fruit from Vietnam — and the prices he must charge at his fruit stand.

“Customers don’t understand why they are having to pay more for what they buy,” Mr. Sharif said, pricing a pound of clementines on a recent weekend at 1.90 euros (about $2.15), up from 80 cents ($0.90) a week earlier. “People are buying less because costs are going up.”

Meat prices at a nearby butcher are up 10 percent since the summer. Some French cheeses are expected to rise 20 percent in the new year. Even the traditional baguette, a staple of the French diet, will get more expensive, bakers say.

Inflation, relatively quiet in Europe for nearly a decade, is starting to make itself felt as high energy prices, labor shortages and supply-chain bottlenecks set off by the end of pandemic lockdowns course through everyday life.

A record annual increase in prices, to 4.9 percent in the eurozone last month, is affecting Europe’s businesses, factories and commerce. But people trying to put food on the table are also beginning to get squeezed.

The European Central Bank previously insisted the spike would be temporary. But last week, the bank was compelled to lift its inflation forecast for 2022 to 3.2 percent, from 1.7 percent projected in September, amid signs that rising prices won’t be as transitory as thought.

That is hardly news to habitués of the Marché d’Aligre, Paris’s oldest food market, founded in 1779. Animated by generations of shopkeepers, the market is a reflection of the city itself, attracting low-income families, middle earners and affluent foodies who flock to fresh produce, cheeses, spices and flea-market bargains.

The outdoor fruit and vegetable sellers are known as the least expensive in Paris, and strive to maintain affordable prices for basics like tomatoes and potatoes no matter the economic climate, said Rémy Costaz, whose family has operated a greengrocer stand since 1905.

But costs for a wide variety of goods, from pork to passion fruit, have climbed with the inflationary surge. Among the market’s stall keepers and modest-income shoppers, the impact is already being felt. And many are preparing for worse.

Simone Ginestet, a retiree living on a fixed pension, traveled 45 minutes by train from her apartment near Versailles for fruits and vegetables. Apple prices in her middle-class neighborhood jumped to €6.50 a kilo, while pears had reached €7 a kilo, up 10 to 20 percent in two months, she said.

“It’s huge,” Ms. Ginestet lamented, rummaging at a cut-rate table where baskets of nearly expired pears were priced at €1. “Especially when you have modest means, how do you make it?”

At the south end of the market, where…