Lower Bread Prices Expected By Mid-March

The public can expect lower bread prices as early as 16 March to reflect the drop in flour prices, an industry leader yesterday said.

“Flour prices went down by P40 and are now at around P800 per 25- kilogram bag,” Philippine Baking Industry Group President Simplicio P Umali said in an interview, as reported by bakingbusiness.com.

As a result, bakers would be cutting P1 off the price of a 600-gram loaf while a 10-piece pack of pan de sal will cost 50 centavos less by March 16 or 17, Mr Umali said.

A loaf should then be priced at a range of P49 to P53.50, while a pack of pan de sal will be at P25 to P35.

“Not all members will roll back by then. It depends on their inventory,” Mr Umali clarified. “We are expecting flour prices to still go down to P750.”

Smaller bakeshops, meanwhile, are likely to make their pan de sal sizes larger or use higher quality ingredients as flour prices fall, Lucito B. Chavez, president of small baker group Philippine Federation of Bakers’ Associations said in a separate interview.

Bakers are also mulling getting more flour from importers instead of from local millers, Mr Umali said.

Imported flour can cost as much as 13 per cent lower than locally milled flour, as their prices range from P690 to P770 per bag, Mr Umali said.

The price reduction is the first for the year, with the last cut of 50 centavos for a loaf and 25 centavos for a pack of pan de sal made last November.

Bread had cost as much as P56 per loaf in September, earlier reports show, after flour millers hiked prices of flour by P50. Trade department data show flour prices hitting as high as P980 per bag in that month.