Bakers promise price cuts in bread products –
P1 for loaf, and 50 centavos for pandesal -- beginning this
month on falling wheat prices and freight costs.
Bakers are also moving to standardize the
weight of pandesal to remove the image of the shrinking pandesal.
In a press conference at the sidelines of the
5th International Exhibition on Bakery, Confectionery and Food
Service Equipment and Supplies at the World Trade Center, bakers
are optimistic of the recovery of the bread industry this year,
growing by as much as 10 percent from a flat performance in
2008.
The Philippine Baking Industry Group Inc. (PhilBaking),
the Filipino-Chinese Bakery Association Inc. (FCBAI) and the
Philippine Federation of Bakers Association Inc. (PFBAI) are
waging a campaign called Yehey Pandesal for all of its members
to standardize the pandesal based on baked weight. These and
other several initiatives would help boost consumption of
pandesal and other bread products.
As a guide, the bakers came up with the
following size classifications: budget or small which is under
25 grams; regular or standard, 25 to 35 g.; large, 35 to 45 g
and; jumbo, over 45 grams.
PhilBaking president Simplicio Umali Jr. said
the prices would still vary, depending on the ingredients or
improvers that go into the bread but the regular-sized pandesal
would range from P2 to P2.50 for those sold by community bakers
and P2.50 to P3.50 for those sold in supermarkets and groceries.
The mini pandesal is P1.50.
FCBAI president emeritus Henry Ah urged
bakers to use a standard recipe and come up with healthy bread
products.
Ah said the groups are also encouraging their
members to pre-pack their pandesal at off-peak hours to maintain
freshness. Right now, most bakers follow a baking schedule to
save on cooking gas and make their "hot" pandesal available only
at peak hours which is 5 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 5 p.m.
Umali said packing pandesal by 10s would also
turn out to be cheaper compared to selling them per piece as
bakers are able to adjust prices, centavo for centavo,
vis-à-vis flour prices.
Umali said prices of pandesal and other bread
products are very stable at this time despite the high cost of
liquefied petroleum gas and rentals.
He said hard wheat prices have dropped to
$303 per metric ton from a high of $910/mt in March 2008 and for
soft wheat to $277 from $525.
Umali said flour prices have gone down by P20
from P870 to P850 per 25-kilogram sack this month with the
elimination of tariff on wheat.
But Umali said this is not enough, based on
the low price of wheat as well as the drastic drop in freight
costs to less than $21 per ton from $180/ton.
He said flour prices should fall to a range
of P760 to P790 within the month, resulting in a price cut of P1
per loaf bread and 50 centavos per pandesal.
Umali said the bakers last month have appealed to the Tariff
Commission to reconsider eliminating the tariffs on flour to
provide competition for locally-milled flour.
