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LOCAL
flour millers and bakers failed to reach a concrete
agreement during their meeting with the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI) on Thursday, leaving hanging
the question of whether there will be a new round of
increases in bread prices.
Trade
Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said she gave both
parties up to Tuesday next week to talk among themselves
and come up with possible compromise solutions.
If no
resolution is reached by then, Maglaya said the DTI will
allow the bakers to increase prices by Wednesday.
“We will
let them talk even at the company-to-company level and
reach an agreement. For the DTI, as long as the price of
bread does not move, it will be a welcome development,”
Maglaya said after the meeting.
Simplicio Umali, president of the Philippine Baking
Industry Group and general manager of Gardenia Bakeries
Philippines, said their original plan is to increase
prices by P1 per 600-gram loaf and 50 centavos for every
10-piece pan de sal pack if the millers will not
reconsider their plea to bring back the discounts that
the bakers are getting for buying flour in bulk.
The
millers have decided to roll back their prices by P13
per 25-kilogram bag, but the bakers said they are still
effectively paying additional P27 to P37 per bag because
of the lost discounts.
“We
don’t want to raise our prices so we are urging the
flour millers to recalculate their costs and
reconsider,” Umali said.
He said
the bakers will also do some recomputation on their own
and determine how much they would increase if their
request to the millers is not heard.
Umali
said they will hold off any increase until Tuesday and
make a decision what to do by then based on what would
be the pronouncement of the millers.
Ric
Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Association
of Flour Millers, declined to comment after coming out
of the meeting.
Maglaya
said even if the bakers and millers would reach an
agreement, the DTI will still pursue the investigation
into the allegations of profiteering against the flour
millers.
“We will
continue with the investigation because they already
imposed the increase and they have to bear the
consequences,” Maglaya said. |
