DTI still studying Pinoy pandesal, ‘tasty’ price hike

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is still studying the requests to increase the prices of Pinoy tasty and Pinoy pandesal.

“The DTI Consumer Protection Group (CPG) is studying their requests and will endeavor to find optimal arrangements,” Trade Undersecretary Carol Sanchez said yesterday in a Viber message to reporters.

In an interview with One News Friday, CPG Undersecretary Ruth Castelo affirmed that the Philippine Baking Industry Group (PhilBaking) requested an increase of P4 in the prices of Pinoy tasty and Pinoy pandesal.

“We’re still reviewing it and we’re asking for more details from them so that we can complete the study and then maybe decide on whether or not we’re going to increase it,” Castelo said.

“But definitely, I don’t think P4 will be (granted) for now because it’s going to be less affordable for the consumer,” she added.

Castelo earlier expressed hope that bread manufacturers would consider lowering the requested price increase to P2, instead of P4.

“Maybe it can be an increase of P2 first. Then if another P2 is needed later on, we will study this,” she said earlier.

In August, PhilBaking called for a P4 increase in the price of Pinoy tasty and Pinoy pandesal.

“Because this is a joint project with DTI, it can be from something to P4 per loaf. So from P38.50 it will be P42.50. The Pinoy pandesal and the coco pandesal, this will be from P23.50 to P27.50,” PhilBaking president Johnlu Koa said earlier.

In the DTI’s suggested retail price bulletin issued on Aug. 12, the prices for Pinoy pandesal, Pinoy tasty and coco pandesal remained the same.

Koa recalled that their group was intending to submit a request for price increase in June but then trade secretary Ramon Lopez asked them to hold it off.

“So we talked about it within PhilBaking and the members agreed to support the new government, with (Trade) Sec. (Alfredo) Pascual and of course to mitigate the super inflation that is happening. So that’s why we did not adjust the price of Pinoy tasty,” Koa said in August.

“But now we need to adjust it. Two months have passed. It’s already time,” Koa said in Filipino.