Flour millers say price rollback unlikely for now

Flour millers on Friday said they cannot accommodate a reported call by a bakers' group to further roll back prices of their products, at least for now. But Philippine Association of Flour Millers executive director Ricardo Pinca said millers continue to watch prices of wheat in the world market. "There is competition in the flour milling industry, we have 12 flour mills competing against each other. We cannot afford to keep our prices high especially when a competitor lowers its prices," he said in an interview on dZBB radio. He was referring to a reported call by local bakers to flour millers to reduce prices to P800 per 25-kilogram bag, which would allow them to bring prices of pandesal down to P2 apiece and cut prices of loaf bread by P2. But Pinca said flour millers cannot afford to bring down their prices to such a level that they would incur losses. Pinca also noted a slight increase in wheat prices as of Thursday night, with prices going up to $8.63 a bushel, up slightly from $8.60 a bushel. On the other hand, he cited reports that US farmers may not be willing to sell at lower prices because they had invested much in fertilizer and farm tools. — LBG, GMA News