MANILA, Philippines – If you’re planning to buy chocolate cake for your date this Valentine’s Day, it’s going to cost you much more due to higher prices of sugar and eggs.

Egg prices are up by 17.7%, while sugar has risen by 38.8%, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). As for chocolate, prices have gone up by 7.2%.

Inflation is not just a thorn for lovers, it’s also hurting small businesses.

“It’s really frustrating. All baked goods have eggs and sugar, but you can’t increase prices too much because you lose customers,” said Edmalynne Remillano, a home baker who sells cakes and pastries online.

Remillano said in-demand cakes like salted caramel, yema cake, sans rival, and meringue are now more expensive to make. The cake frosting in Swiss buttercream is costlier, too. Even the cheapest chiffon cakes got a price bump, since they also use lots of eggs.

In this sense, eggs play a somewhat significant role in the dating game.

Luisito Chavez of the Federation of Bakers asked customers to be more understanding.

"The small community bakeries shoulder electricity, water, transport, and the cost of all these have gone up. Some have reduced the size of their products just to avoid a drastic price increase," Chavez said.

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For those planning to drink wine after a romantic dinner, be prepared for more expenses.

PSA data showed that wine prices have gone up by 7%, while the cost of spirits and liquors increased by 8%. Beer saw a slightly slower price increase of 6.7%.

It's not just food and wine. Even preparing for and getting to your date will cost you more.

Transport inflation remains elevated at 11.2%. A haircut costs 7.1% more, while new clothes cost 4.5% more than a year ago.

For those who are skipping this year's night out and instead sending a care package with a sweet letter, courier and delivery services remain somewhat stable at 0.9%. But the cost of stationery and drawing materials have gone up by 6.1%.

As of January 2023, inflation in the cost of flowers saw a slowdown of 4.7% from the 5.3% in December 2022.

– Rappler.com