Bakers urged to tighten their belts

Amid the surging price increases of baking ingredients, Cebu bakers are advised to tighten their belts and absorb the price spikes for as long as they can, so as not to further burden the consumers. 

Cebu Bakery Association (CEBA) president Christopher Ebisa has urged industry players to be more vigilant with their sales inventory and price increases in order not to bring further woes to consumers.

He said that incremental adjustments to some bakery products should be done if a bakery can no longer hold the increasing cost of its operation. But he stressed that if the situation will be tolerable, he is calling that they tighten their belts and absorb the additional increases of their raw products.

In a Department of Trade and Industry Cebu weekly price monitoring report, price of flour per bag went up by P10 this week.

The prevailing price of hard flour is now at P950 for general brands and P920 for Kutitap brand which was priced at P940 and P930 last week.

The price of soft flour also increased to P830 from its price last week of P820. But another soft flour brand called as Island decreased its price from P850 last week to P845.

With the soar of flour prices, bread prices have also increased such as loaf breads which increased by P2 to P3.50 from last week’s P28 for 410 grams and P36.50 for 500 grams. But it was noted however that “pandesal” prices for a 20gram remained at P3 a piece.

Ebisa said that although there have been many bakeries who started implementing price adjustments, there are still a lot who decided to absorb the additional increases of raw products.

He said that the price increases will still be slow as prices of flour is still rapidly increasing.

“Dili pa maka-fix increase ang uban kay sige pa saka ang material cost. Ang uban konsumidor makasabot ani apan daghan pud moreklamo pero dili man ta kapugong ani kay world market man ang nag-dictate unya wala pud ta substitute sa flour kay tanan amo gamit gikan man sa gawas (Others could not yet make fixed price increases because material cost still continue to rise. Other consumers understand this but some don’t but we can’t do otherwise because this situation is dictated by the world market and we don’t have a substitute for flour because we use the kind that is imported form abroad),” said Ebisa.

He said that it is always important for bakery owners to consider their production cost and margins so that they won’t incur several losses.

“Depende sa diskarte sa bakery owners ang pag-increase. Kinahanglan man nila i-adjust ilang material cost aron dili sila malugi og sige baligya bisa’g wala na ginansya (Increasing prices will depend upon the discretion of bakery owners. They have to adjust their material cost so that they won’t lose much and sell without gaining revenue),” he pointed out.

He shared that there has been several bakeries who have closed down due to loses, but there has also been new players which shows that the industry can still cope up with the economic conditions.

“I’m calling that our members review their operation if they are still earning or not. Hinay-hinayon pud onta ang pag increase sa presyo para dili pud magkalisod ang kunsumidor sa padayon pagsaka sa mga palaliton. (They should also slowly increase prices so that consumers will not be overburdened by the continuous price increases of commodities), he said. — Rhia de Pablo