Our daily bread.

One of the things I enjoy most about dining out is the ubiquitous basket of warm bread, buns or preferably hard crusty bread they serve at good restaurants. While waiting for dinner to be served, I relish the idea of soft butter slathered on piping hot bread, the heat instantly melting the butter which oozes to the very core of that one slice of crusty bread. This is simple unadulterated joy, biting into buttered bread and I sometimes let it get the better of me, asking for a second basket and yes, another pat of butter please. By the time the entrée comes, I’m halfway full, which isn’t such a good idea. I should have just come for the bread and not have to pay for an expensive entrée, but this cycle is an oft-repeated exercise for me and my family. Good bread, like soft steaming hot rice, is always hard to resist.

Pinoys are decidedly a rice-eating people, but we certainly enjoy our pan de sal as well. Dunked in coffee, this constitutes a satisfying repast for many, and the pan de sal has become a staple in the Pinoy breakfast table for so long. Which is why the price of pan de sal has been a major concern for many of us, often becoming a yardstick of the current economic times.

So when I had the chance to get some inputs from one of the country’s esteemed authorities on bread, I readily grabbed the chance. Mr. Simplicio Umali Jr. is the president of the Phil Baking Industry which counts all the biggest bakers that sell their products in supermarkets, groceries and convenience stores all over the country. He is also the president and general manager of Gardenia Bakery products, a most dynamic and progressive Filipino company that is now also making its presence felt in other Asian countries. Phil Baking, together with the Fil-Chinese Bakers Association and the Federation of Bakers which is composed of all the small community bakeries all over the country came up with the novel idea of Pinoy Tasty (which was already launched) and the soon- to- be- launched Pinoy Pan De Sal.

Pan de sal lovers will very soon be seeing this product, in a very attractive package containing 10 pieces in their favorite supermarkets. The Pinoy Tasty was such a huge success that the group decided to do a follow-up act with the pan de sal. These generic products are our Pinoy panaderos labor of love for the Pinoys, says Mr. Umali. The three big organizations of local bakers, in consultation with the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), have agreed to subsidize the Pinoy Tasty and the Pinoy Pan de Sal to come out with nutritious but affordable bread for the Filipino household, agreeing not to charge their operating and overhead costs to bring down the costs. They have also enlisted the cooperation of participating supermarkets and groceries to partially subsidize these two products. They have set the maximum price of the Pinoy Pan de Sal at P2.50 each, so a pack of ten should cost P25 in supermarkets, and a bit less, say P22.50 in community stores/bakeries which do not have the added overhead and distribution costs of supermarkets because their bread is baked and sold on-site. For a marginalized family of five, including the minimal cost of coffee and sugar, breakfast can be had for less than P30.

They have also unified their standards. We asked Mr. Umali about the “shrinking pan de sal” that has been a bane to many of our older folks. To this, he retorts, “That was the other issue we wanted to address with Pinoy Pan de Sal. About a year or two ago, we standardized the size of pan de sal and we felt that there was a need to go forward and launch this Pinoy pan de Sal and make a standard which is 25 grams per pan de sal. That should be the smallest pan de sal that you should find in the market. It will be common for all bakers participating, be they in the supermarkets or in community stores or community bake shops.”

Actually, the price of wheat has been steadily going down in the global market, which is why the DTI is frothing at the mouth for the millers’ refusal to bring the cost of flour down. From what I understand, our local millers’ supply for now was sourced at a higher cost. I also understand that it takes about three months for the wheat to get into the country and be processed into flour, but if the price of wheat in the global market started to decline since January of this year, how long before they translate this to lower flour prices?

In recent years, the bakers were beleaguered by high flour prices, rising sugar prices and high costs of fuel and electricity, aggravated by rising labor costs. Sugar has since stabilized, but all the other factors remain unchanged, if not still on the rise. All to their costs other ingredients like milk and dairy products which have also risen and the effect is a major negative one. They hope that when flour prices soften in the country, which they expect to happen sometime in early December, this will somehow offset all the other aggravating factors that contribute to their overhead. But there is another factor that is now a major concern for them—the strengthened peso has diminished their purchasing power in the foreign markets where most of the ingredients of the branded bread products come from.

They assure us that there will be no price increase between now and December when the correction in wheat prices are finally felt locally. As for the industry itself, the Breadman says that last year, many of the country’s bakeries did not register growth, though some of the bigger chains increased their over-all sales because they opted to expand their distribution networks and reached out to new markets. Over-all, though, he expects the whole industry to grow by about 10 percent for this year.

The branded bread is still very much around for those who care for it, but at least the Filipino consumer now has a choice.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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