Buying baked goods this holiday season could cost you more and the price of butter is likely to blame.

Some local bakeries have had increase their prices of treats in order to keep up with the rising cost of butter.

“If you use shortening or high ratio shortening, it’s not the same flavour, butter is best,” said Chantelle Villeneuve, the owner of Bon ApaTreat in Kitchener.

The bakery uses butter in every baked good from brownies and blondies to buttercream cookie sandwiches and it has led to melting profit margins.

Villeneuve said the rising cost of butter is almost too much to bear. She buys about 80 pounds of butter per week and even more during the holiday season.

“Price of butter has increased quite a bit. It’s actually increased a couple of times,” said Villeneuve, “I would say between 26 per cent and 30 per cent depending on where I get it.”

The price increase of butter has forced her to cut staffing hours and pass on some of those costs to customers.

“Unfortunately some things we’ve had to increase the price of like brownies and blondies and some other items as well but we have no other choice,” said Villeneuve.

Simon Somogyi, the Arrell chair in the business of food at the University of Guelph said the price of butter in Canada has climbed over 23 per cent over the last year.

“In 20 years – we’ve never seen an increase like this. It’s unprecedented,” said Somogyi.

He said the cause is due to a variety of factors.

“The Canadian Dairy Commission recommended a 12 to 15 per cent increase in milk prices at the farm gate for 2022 moving into 2023,” said Somogyi. “What we’re seeing is that increase gets passed along the food supply chain, particularly the food processor and retail level where they have very high cost as well.”

It means a domino effect on pricing.

At the family-run, Crema Pastry and Bake Shop in Kitchener, their holiday walnut strudel is more expensive.

“Last year we had it at 24 bucks and right now we have it at 27,” said Josh Pavel, the general manager.

Pavel said the shop uses more than a hundred pounds of butter a week and though it hasn’t been cheap, they are not willing to sacrifice taste.

Somogyi said he predicts the price of butter will continue to climb over the next six months but believes it should simmer down by the summer.