DTI to watch bread prices after govt removes flour tariff

Now that President Benigno Aquino III has re-imposed zero tariff on wheat, prices of bread and related products are being monitored closely, the Department of Trade and Industry said Tuesday. DTI Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya also said she will meet with bakers and manufacturers to see if they will still make price adjustments despite Aquino’s Executive Order (EO) 21. "We will watch prices closely. We do not want to preempt anyone, but we expect the zero-tariff EO to bring down prices of flour by P20 per sack. If there is still a need to adjust prices, we will analyze it," Maglaya said in Filipino in an interview on dzBB. Moreover, she said the DTI will hold consultations with flour millers.
She cited reports reaching her that prices of flour may still go up to P800 per sack this week, from the present P770, due to high world prices of wheat. The price hikes were supposedly partly due to floods affecting wheat-producing countries such as Australia and Brazil. In February last year, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo suspended for six months the tariff on wheat through EO 863, to support efforts to lower the cost of producing wheat flour. Last January 14, Aquino signed EO 21, which re-imposed zero-tariffs on imported wheat for six months to cushion the impact of rising prices due to the product's low availability in the world market, Malacañang said Monday. But Maglaya declined to say when the effects on bread prices of President Aquino’s EO 21 can be felt. “Tingnan natin kalagayan ng takbo ng presyo ng trigo at sinasabing nakaambang na adjustment (Let’s just see how prices go)," she said in a separate interview on dwIZ radio. Maglaya said she may ask flour millers and bakers’ groups to submit their lists of adjusted suggested retail prices. She reminded millers they will have to notify the DTI first before imposing price hikes. “We already agreed that any price adjustment should come only after the DTI is notified, so there will not be any misunderstanding," she added. Noodles, other items On the other hand, Maglaya said competition among brands is helping keep down prices of noodles and other items using flour. According to her, manufacturers are watching each other, on whether they will raise prices and by how much. “Ang importante rito ay magbibigay sila sa atin ng suggested retail price (SRP)," she added. In the meantime, she urged the public to report profiteering to the DTI hotline at 7513330. Moreover, Maglaya also said the DTI will continue consultations with bakers, who she said do not want to raise prices because consumers also have limitations. Meanwhile, small bakeries in southern Metro Manila gave their customers some relief from rising costs of living as they did not implement a price hike for their products. Radio dzBB's Glen Juego reported the owners of the bakeries in Pasay and Taguig Cities explained they still had much "old stock" of flour and other ingredients. The report said these bakeries still sold tasty bread at P35 per loaf, P1 below the P36 price of the subsidized "Pinoy Tasty" bread. But the report also said that while the bakeries still sold pandesal at between P1 and P2 per piece, the size of the bread had shrunk. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV