Press Release
November 14, 2008

ROXAS BATS FOR P1 DECREASE IN PRICE OF PAN DE SAL

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said the price of pan de sal should be reduced by P1 a piece instead of 25 centavos since global wheat prices have gone down by as much as 40 percent since midyear.

Roxas said the 25-centavo price reduction is very niggardly and bolsters suspicions the Department of Trade and Industry is in cahoots with bread makers and flour millers to keep bread and pan de sal prices high.

"Niloloko tayo nitong mga flour millers at mga panadero, at mukhang kasama ang DTI sa zarsuela. Biro mo, pumayag ang DTI na manatili sa P940 bawat bag ng arina, o pagbaba ng P17 lang. Subalit ang presyo ng trigo ay bumaba ng halos kuwarenta porsyento na mula Hunyo (We are being fooled by these flour millers and bakers, and it looks like the DTI is part of this zarsuela. To think, the DTI allowed millers to retain the cost of P940 per bag of flour, or only a P17 decrease. Meanwhile, wheat has gone down by over 40% since June)," said Roxas.

"Hindi lang dapat bente singko ang ibaba ng presyo ng pan de sal. Sa laki ng ibinagsak ng presyo ng trigo sa pandaigdigang merkado, dapat umabot na ng piso ang bawas sa halaga ng isang pan de sal. (The decrease should not only be P0.25 for pandesal. With the huge drop in the price of wheat in the world market, the decrease in the price of pan de sal should at least be one peso)," he added.

Different bread groups recently announced a P0.50 reduction in the price of a 600-gram loaf of bread and a P0.25 decrease in the cost of a 30-gram piece of pan de sal, a minimal cut which they said corresponds to the small drop in the prices of flour.

Roxas, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee, said the DTI, flour millers and bread makers are obviously in cahoots to sustain the high cost of flour in total disregard of the 40 percent drop in the prices of wheat in the world market.

Figures from the United States Wheat Associates showed that wheat was priced at $512 per metric ton in June, but has gone down to $317/MT as of this month, reflecting a 38.1% drop in price.

The price of a 25-kg bag of hard flour, however, was only reduced by P17, or a drop of only 1.8%. A bag of a 25-kg hard flour now costs P940.

The Ilonggo senator is now culling relevant data on the costs of manufacturing bread, such as freight costs, taxes and the cost of other ingredients, so as to determine the fairness in the pricing of flour and the final bread product.

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