Bread prices up next month

MANILA, Philippines - The prices of loaf bread and pandesal will go up next month as flour, sugar, eggs, dairy products and diesel prices rise, according to the Philippine Baking Industry Group (Philbaking).

Walter Co, Philbaking president, told The STAR over the weekend the price of bread will definitely go up next month.

“At the minimum, the price of loaf bread will go up by P1.50 per loaf and P0.75 for a pack of 10 pieces of pandesal,” he said.

Co said they were scheduled to increase their prices last December but decided to postpone the increase because of the holidays.

Since November, the price of sugar has been going up but they decided to absorb the added cost because consumers were still recovering from the typhoons, he added.

Co said the costs of their inputs are also rising.

“All inputs have gone up,” he said.

Co said apart from recovering the losses they had to absorb last December, they have to factor in the cost of flour, sugar, egg, dairy products and diesel.

Flour prices have already gone up by P20 per bag, he added.

Co said a medium sized egg used to be P3.80, but it had gone up to P4.30 each. The prices of dairy products have more than doubled, from P2,000 per bag to P4,500 per bag, he added.

Co said they have already factored in the decrease in the price of liquefied petroleum gas or cooking gas, but that the increase in the price of diesel had more impact.

Bakers questioned the decision of flour millers to implement a price increase this month, he added.

Co said flour millers have at least two months’ remaining inventory which can be sold at the old price.

“There should not be a sudden increase in flour prices,” he said. “There should be a delay of at least three to four months.”

Trade and Industry Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya agreed that the price of flour should not yet be increased because of remaining inventory.

“I would like to remind flour millers that before any price increase, they should write the DTI,” she said.

As of last Friday, the Department of Trade and Industry had not yet received any communication from the flour millers as to their P20 price increase.