Victor Pourcher, edited by Manon Fossat 10:00 am, November 09, 2021

After the risk of a shortage of cardboard, in particular linked to the inflation of raw materials, paper is in turn likely to pose serious problems.

A situation that worries booksellers less than two months before Christmas, dependent on supplies from their printers.

Because the risk is to run out of stock for the holidays.

REPORTING

After the cardboard shortage, are we heading for a paper shortage?

As the Christmas holidays approach, several sectors are indeed likely to be impacted and the risk of stock shortages is to be expected.

Books, among other things, remain one of the most gifted gifts, but will we have enough paper to print them?

Many publishers are failing to meet the print runs and booksellers do not receive all of their orders.

This is particularly the case at Livre et la Tortue, a bookstore in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in Ile-de-France.

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Upon entering François Groff's bookstore, everything looks perfectly normal and the shelves are full.

But it is in its order book that the shortage begins to be felt.

"It results in a lot of ruptures. On literature, we launched our orders yesterday, so it will happen this month. We will be good for Christmas but on comics, I have a little more uncertainties" , he admits.

No return to normal before the end of 2022

Booksellers are uncertain because printers can no longer keep up.

Gilles Mure-Ravaud, president of the Printing Trades Group, explains this shortage by increasing book sales, of course, but above all by the transformation of certain factories during the health crisis.

"Today, paper supply times have doubled or even quadrupled. This is because of factories that have closed and paper machines that have seen their products migrate from graphic papers to paper from printing. packaging, ”he said.

These packaging are mainly intended for online delivery platforms.

As for the book sector, paper supply will not return to normal before the end of 2022.