Bread prices were expected to increase this month following the continuing increase in flour prices abroad, industry officials said Monday.

The price of Pinoy Tasty, the bakers' concession to the government to keep bread prices affordable, went up by another P1 to P39 last week after having risen from its introductory price of P36 early this year, reported Manila Standard Today.

Walter Co, president of the Philippine Baking Industry Group, said bakers could not keep bearing their losses from keeping bread prices down.

Flour millers said flour prices would continue to soar abroad as the United States continued to convert more of its corn production to ethanol for blending with gasoline.

Ric Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Flour Millers Association, said US demand for ethanol was diverting massive volumes of corn from the global market.

"In turn, flour production gets diverted to animal feed production to fill in the shortfall in corn," Pinca said.