Cream, egg, sugar and cocoa prices in Poland in 2026: what a pastry shop pays

Ingredients in October 2026 in one table

After two years in which pastry shops in Poland paid record prices for butter, eggs and chocolate, autumn 2026 brings clear relief on dairy and sugar. The exception is cocoa: beans were cheapest in March and have been getting more expensive since. Below are the latest quotes from official sources. Prices from the ZSRIR bulletins (the Polish Ministry of Agriculture's Integrated Agricultural Market Information System) are net prices (excluding VAT) of producers or prices paid by the trade, without transport and wholesaler margin. At a wholesaler you will pay more, but the direction of change is the same. We cover butter prices separately in our butter price analysis.

Cream: cheaper, because milk is cheaper

ZSRIR reports cream prices in two fat groups: over 29% (that is 30% and 36% cream, which you use for fillings and whipped cream) and 10-29% (including 18% cream). The source does not give separate prices for 30% and 36%. In the week to October 4, 2026 Polish dairies sold cream over 29% at 1,400.88 PLN per 100 kg, 5.4% cheaper than a year earlier (1,480.75 PLN).^[1] Converted, that is about 14.01 PLN per kilogram net. This is our calculation and the dairy's selling price, not the wholesale price. The bulletin does not comment on the reason, but it shows cheaper raw material: the average milk purchase price in August 2026 was 178.62 PLN/100 kg compared with 227.38 PLN a year earlier, 21.4% less.^[1] In shops the difference is small: according to GUS (Statistics Poland), cream in August 2026 was 0.8% cheaper than a year earlier.^[10]

• 30-36% cream from the dairy: about 14 PLN/kg net (calculated from 1,400.88 PLN/100 kg)^[1]
• year on year: -5.4% for cream over 29%, -3.2% for 10-29% cream^[1]
• milk purchase price: -21.4% year on year in August 2026^[1]
• butter in 25 kg blocks for bakeries and pastry shops: 2,180.40 PLN/100 kg, -11.9% year on year^[1]

Eggs: a peak before Easter 2026, now cheaper than a year ago

Over the last two years eggs were the most volatile ingredient for pastry shops in Poland. In autumn 2025 caged eggs size L at packing plants were 39.3% more expensive than a year earlier, and barn eggs size M 36.8%.^[5] The peak came before Easter 2026: in the week to March 29 barn eggs M cost 89.93 PLN per 100, and caged eggs L 86.56 PLN.^[6] Prices have been falling since summer, and at the end of September caged eggs L cost 69.84 PLN/100 (6.9% less than a year earlier), and caged eggs M 52.82 PLN (18.7% less).^[4] For a pastry shop that works out at about 6.98 PLN for 10 caged L eggs and 7.13 PLN for 10 barn M eggs net at the packing plant (our calculation). Eggs for processing, the raw material for liquid egg, got clearly cheaper: 6,040 PLN per tonne, 21.2% less than a year earlier.^[4] The bulletins do not give reasons for the changes. When prices rose at the turn of 2024 and 2025, the Polish poultry industry pointed to fewer laying hen chicks and bird flu.^[9] In shops eggs are still getting more expensive: according to GUS, in August 2026 they were 5.3% more expensive than a year earlier.^[10]

Sugar: half the price of early 2024

ZSRIR separately reports the price that “bakeries, pastry shops, etc.” pay for white sugar, and this figure best shows what is happening in our industry. In August 2026 it was 1,947 PLN per tonne, about 1.95 PLN per kilogram net (our calculation), 11.6% less than a year earlier (2,204 PLN).^[7] In January 2024 the same category cost 3,823 PLN/t.^[8] The average price of white sugar in the European Union in August 2026 was 500 euros per tonne.^[13] The Polish Ministry of Agriculture explains the fall by a downturn lasting since the end of 2023 and record production in Poland: 2.58 million t in the 2024/25 season and 2.57 million t in 2025/26, against domestic consumption of about 1.8 million t a year. At the same time it warns of a possible change in trend: the 2026/27 harvest is expected to be about 20% smaller, and price rises on world exchanges “may signal the beginning of a change to an upward trend”.^[14] In shops, sugar in August 2026 was 15.1% cheaper than a year earlier.^[10]

Cocoa: up again after falling by two thirds

The cocoa price, calculated by the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) as the average of quotes on the London and New York exchanges, reached 11,984.66 USD per tonne on December 18, 2024.^[11] Then it fell for more than a year: the March 2026 average was 3,241.49 USD/t, and the lowest daily quote in 2026 (2,893.81 USD/t) came on February 27.^[11] In summer the direction reversed. The August 2026 average was 5,990.50 USD/t, September 5,898.14 USD/t, and on October 12 a tonne cost 5,789.95 USD.^[11] That is still 15.8% less than in September 2025, but 82% more than in March 2026 (our calculation). Market analysts point to weaker harvest forecasts in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, cocoa tree diseases and the risk of El Niño, as well as demand returning after a period of high prices, as reasons for the rebound.^[16] In Polish shops, chocolate in August 2026 was 1.5% more expensive than a year earlier.^[10] None of these sources publishes official wholesale prices of chocolate and couverture in zloty.

What this means for a pastry shop

Autumn 2026 is a good moment to recalculate recipes based on creams, whipped cream and egg mixtures: cream, butter, eggs for processing and sugar are clearly cheaper than a year ago. That does not automatically mean cutting prices in the display case, after two years of increases some pastry shops are only now recovering their margin, but it is worth knowing what a cake really costs today, not in March. Chocolate is the opposite: cocoa beans have been getting more expensive since spring, and the Polish Ministry of Agriculture signals a possible end to falling sugar prices, so it is better to price chocolate products cautiously. We show how to turn an ingredient price into the cost of a cake in How to calculate the real food cost of a cake, and we write about raising and lowering prices in Bakery pricing. In BakePilot ingredient prices update from purchase invoices (the invoice scanner and KSeF cost invoices in the Mistrzowski (Master) plan, KSeF being Poland's National e-Invoicing System), and recipes are recalculated with the new prices. More on the invoice price scanner page.

• recalculate recipes with cream, butter, eggs and sugar at the prices from your latest invoices
• creams and egg mixtures: lower cost than a year ago; chocolate: be cautious
• ZSRIR prices exclude VAT and wholesaler margin, compare the direction of change, not the zloty
• check the quotes once a quarter, before changing your price list