Pandesal prices to go up to P2.50 each

The price of pandesal, the breakfast staple of many Filipino families, will increase by P0.50 as a result of higher flour prices, the Philippine Federation of Bakers Association Inc. (PFBAI) said.

Pandesal, which was previously priced at P2 a piece will now cost P2.50.

The price of loaf bread will likewise increase by five percent to P52 per 600 grams by mid-December.

Bakers said they are forced to raise their prices after the price of flour has gone up by 45 percent from P580 per 25-kilogram bag in July to P840 this month. Flour represents 55 to 65 percent of the baker’s production cost.

“We have been appealing to the flour millers not to increase their prices this December but we’re told that their cost of imported wheat has gone up due to global price increases,” Marcos Ong, president of the Filipino-Chinese Bakers Association Inc. (FCBAI) said.

In fact, he said the entire baking industry has been suffering for half a year now because of wheat and flour prices.

“We are no longer capable of tightening our belts any further, lest we need to close down our bakeries. Pandesal, which is now averaging P2 per piece at about 32 grams each is no longer viable with the new flour prices,” PFBAI president Lucito Chavez said.

The bakers are asking the government to start importing cheaper flour through the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC). If this is not possible, the bakers said they will settle for a reduction in flour tariff. Currently, a five-to seven-percent duty is imposed.

The bakers have also asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to step in the price of flour under government control.

The bakers said DTI should talk to local flour millers not to price their products too far from the P650 per bag selling price of the importers of low-grade China flour.

The main reason for the spiraling prices of flour, the bakers said, is the low supply of wheat-the raw material for the production of flour-in the global market.

The increase in flour prices has also affected other flour-based products such as noodles, cakes, pastries and snack goods.