Bakers to roll back bread prices

CEBU, Philippines - As flour prices continue to decline along with the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), bread prices are also seen to most likely go down in Cebu this week.

President of Cebu Bakery Association Inc. Christopher Ebisa told the Freeman that bread prices will continue to depend on the prices of flour in the market as well as with LPG.

The bread sizes will increase from the usual 60 grams to around 70 grams for the staple pan de sal, according to Ebisa.

“If flour prices continue to decrease so as with LPG, we will most likely decrease our prices as well or we will improve the quality and the mass of our bread products,” said Ebisa.

Recently, Simplicio Umali president of the Philippine Baking Industry Group Inc. announced in Manila that prices of bread will go down starting this week.

“If bread prices will decrease, there will be more Cebuanos who can afford to buy our bakery products and having more consumers will be very good for our businesses,” he said.

Ebisa also said that at these times of global economic meltdown, players in their industry continue to be upbeat as food continue to be one of the top priorities of consumers even with a shrinking disposable income.

“Even if there is a crisis, food industry is usually the last sector that will be hit because people will always eat,” he said.

Ebisa said that bread prices are usually controlled by the price movements of flour in the world market.

“If the price will increase, we also adjust our pricing so that we can cope up with the operation cost but if it will decrease, we also decrease our pricing so that we will not burden the consumers,” said Ebisa.

He said that right now, bakery operators are doing their individual measures to offset the effects of the economic crisis and among which is cost cutting.

But as a group, Ebisa said that they still have not done any action to address the situation because right now the industry is still in a better position.

“The business is still smooth and most of the players are still doing well. If there are closures, well, its just part of business that someone losses but there are also new openings and new players so the sector still remains upbeat despite the crisis,” he said.

He also advised other bakery industry players that in order for them to survive the crisis and the competition, they should always manage their bakery’s operation costs.

“You should always look at your costs and monitor the prices of your ingredients to make necessary adjustments and always try to avoid spoilage. And the most important thing is to decease prices if main ingredients are down so that many consumers will continue to patronize,” said Ebisa.

Ebisa along with other members of the Cebu Bakery Association participated in the recently held annual Bakery Fair at the World Trade Center in Manila hosted by the Philippine Chinese Baker’s Association to further enhance and upgrade their bakery skills.