Senator Mar Roxas questioned the announced increase in the prices of bread products, pointing out that the price hike is unjustified since the costs of wheat and flour have recently gone down.
Roxas, chairman of the Senate committee on trade and commerce, urged the Department of Trade and Industry to check the formula used by bakers to come up with the planned P1 increase for the prices of loaf bread and the five-centavo increase for pan de sal.
The Philippine Baking Industry Group (Philbaking) and the Philippine Association of Bakers announced last week the planned price increase, which is expected to take effect anytime this week.
The bakers’ groups had justified that the hike was prompted by the refusal of flour millers to further reduce by P27 per bag the selling price of flour.
But Roxas noted that the prices of wheat flour had just recently dropped by P13 to the current selling price of P957 for a 25-kg bag. Wholesale price of flour in July and August was pegged at P970.
He said that with the P13 drop in the cost of flour, there is no reason for bakers to jack up the prices of their bread products. Instead the cost of bread should even go down. "I don’t see any reason why the prices of loaf bread and pan de sal should be increased. The price of flour has gone down, so why should the cost of bread go up?" he asked.
"The DTI must find all means to ease the cost of producing pan de sal, bread and pastries. I’m worried this will impact heavily on thousands of small and medium businesses and their employees," he said. /MP
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