Loaf bread prices to stay despite flour price hike

MANILA, Philippines - Consumers will still have access to affordable loaf bread and other bakery products despite the latest round of flour price increases, baker groups said yesterday.

Philippine Baking Industry Group (Philbaking) president Walter Co had announced that loaf bread prices will increase by P1 to P1.50 this month while a 10 pack pandesal is expected to cost P0.50 to P0.75 more.

However, Co said that Philbaking members including Gardenia Bakeries, Creative Bakers, Marby, Fortune Bakeshop, Uncle George, Julie’s Bakeshop, French Baker and Sunmaru agreed to continue subsidizing Pinoy Tasty for the benefit of the Filipino masses.

He said Pinoy Tasty price will stay at P36/loaf until end of this year despite the increasing prices of flour, sugar and shortening.

“This is part of our CSR effort. We aim to maintain the price of Pinoy Tasty to make it within the reach of the consumers, especially during this holiday season,” Co said.

Flour prices increased from P740/25kg-bag to P780-P820/bag, based on the monitored prices of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC).

“In our price adjustment implemented last month, we only factored in the P40 increase in flour prices. We haven’t taken into consideration the P20-hike on 25kg bag of flour implemented again by the local flour millers as well as increases on sugar and shortening,” Co said.

Co further discussed that the price of refined sugar skyrocketed from its previous price of P50/kilo to P64/kilo or an increase of 33 percent, while the price of shortening increased by 20-25 percent. Adding to that, the price of LPG, which is also used in baking, increased by P33/11kg this week and will increase again by P22/11kg by next week, or a total of P55/11kg or P5/kg, as reported in the NPCC meeting.

“We will make a minimal price adjustment on our branded loaves and pandesal to cover for the added costs,” Co said.

The bakers group agreed during their meeting that they will continue to subsidize and maintain the price of Pinoy Tasty to P36/loaf until end December despite the increases.