Pune’s legacy bakeries feel the heat of LPG shortage & inflation as annual demand for hot cross buns surges

Pune: In the narrow bylanes of Camp, where legacy bakeries have stood for decades, the scent of hot cross buns signals Good Friday as reliably as church bells. Traditionally eaten on this day to mark the occasion, the buns draw long queues each year. This time, however, the ritual comes with the sharp undertone of rising costs and fuel shortages, forcing bakers to make less profitable calculations behind their counters.Made with refined flour, butter, milk, sugar, yeast and spices, and often studded with raisins or candied peel, the buns are prepared using time-tested methods. The dough is kneaded, allowed to ferment, shaped into rounds, and marked with the signature cross before being baked in batches through the week before Easter. At legacy bakeries, the process remains largely unchanged, even as the economics around it shift.At Husseny Bakery, trays of freshly baked buns emerge from gas-fuelled ovens. "Prices of everything from refined flour to butter and milk have gone up, aside from the LPG shortage, which is obviously affecting our cost of production. But we cannot raise prices now and shift the load on to our customers," said Yusuf Mirdehghan, co-owner of the bakery. He added that the cost of mix used for eggless cakes has also risen, while milk prices have increased by Rs2 since March, consequently pushing up the cost of dairy products as well.Despite mounting expenses, the price of a hot cross bun has remained fixed here. "They are priced at Rs12 per bun, and it has been the same since 2022, even though prices of ingredients have increased. Churches get 10-20% discount. The prices are competitive, so raising them is bad for business. There is a significant increase in demand due to online sales from food delivery apps," Mirdehghan told TOI.Across Camp, similar stories play out. At City Bakery, diesel ovens continue to shoulder the seasonal rush. "We have a gas oven for bread and cakes but the diesel oven is used for the buns. No price increase this year, we are absorbing the losses. However, the LPG shortage is creating a lot of issues for items like cakes and cookies, which need to be baked in the gas oven. The gas oven is rotating while the diesel oven is a deck oven," said co-owner of the bakery, Astaad Irani.The reliance on diesel and older systems comes as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) continues to push bakeries toward cleaner fuel alternatives. Since 2024, following Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) guidelines, PMC began encouraging bakeries to shift to cleaner fuels like LPG, PNG, or electricity to help reduce air pollution.For many legacy establishments, the transition remains a costly challenge. Some of these bakeries that did not switch to gas ovens last year still use wood-fired ones. "We are trying to convert our wood-fire oven to a gas one, keeping the set-up as it is. There is huge demand for this kind of set-up in Mumbai and Pune," said another bakery owner from the area, choosing anonymity.Yet, even as regulations tighten and costs climb, demand for hot cross buns has only grown, buoyed by online delivery platforms and a widening customer base beyond the city's Christian community.For Pune's bakers, the equation is delicate. Tradition must be preserved, customers retained, and margins protected, all while the ovens, whether diesel or gas, continue to burn.