Bakers asked not to hike prices

MANILA — The Department of Trade and Industry is asking bakers to hold off on increasing prices of loaf bread and pan de sal if flour prices do not increase in the next month.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said on Thursday flour millers gave assurance that flour prices would remain stable, at least this month.

“If flour prices don’t increase, and our expectation is that it won’t increase in the coming month, we’re hoping that bakers will not increase bread prices as well,’’ he said.

Last May, Philippine Baking Industry Group president Walter Co said bakers would “likely’’ raise prices of bread products this month due to high flour prices.

He said the current price of flour has been ranging from P920-P940 per 25-kilogram bag, hovering dangerously close to the all-time high price of P980 a bag registered in 2008.

This price range, he said, would be too high for bakers to continue bearing for long.

But Victorio Mario Dimagiba, director of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Trade Regulation and Consumer Protection, said this was still within the “reasonable’’ range.

In an earlier interview, he said the expectation that world wheat prices would start to go down in April did not materialize, which then caused flour prices to stay above the P900-a-bag level. /INQUIRER