Bakers shelving budget pandesal program

Bakers yesterday said they might stop offering the much-hyped budget pandesal launched barely three months ago, adding that they might have to raise prices of bread products to keep up with rising input costs. The standardized 20-gram pandesal priced at P1.50 — a program launched in October last year to boost demand — has become unviable in light of more expensive sugar and the impending increase in flour prices, industry groups said. Loaf prices may also rise next month, depending on the outcome of consultations with flour millers and the government, they said. "I don’t think we can continue that anymore. Some bakers are no longer selling it," Philippine Baking Industry President Walter Co said in a phone interview, referring to the ‘Pandesal ng Bayan’ program of the Trade department and bakers’ groups. Nearly 600 bakeshops across the country had rolled out the budget pandesal in a bid to win back consumers who had been turned off by varying prices and sizes. Lucito B. Chavez, vice-president of the small bakers’ group Philippine Federation of Bakers’ Association, Inc., admitted that the program might have to go. "We have to [change prices] of bread products and we have to consult with the Trade department," Chavez said in a separate telephone interview. "There was an increase in raw materials, and contracts for rental costs are also usually [hiked] in the first quarter," he added. Sugar prices have risen to P42-P48 per kilogram as of Tuesday from P42-P46/kg last week, and from P39-P42/kg during the same period in December, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics data showed. Last week, millers said they would raise flour prices by 3 percent to P770-P790 per 25-kilo bag amid tighter wheat supply. "We are still crunching the numbers... Most likely, we will add P1.50 per loaf and 75 centavos per 10-piece pack of pandesal by mid-February," Co said. The price of a 600-gram loaf now ranges from P48-P53.50 according to Co while a pandesal pack sells for about P30. — Jessica Anne D. Hermosa, BusinessWorld