Flour price down but bread stays up

Published: Wednesday October 8, 2008

NUTRIMIX Feeds Ltd may have reduced flour prices by ten per cent, but bakers are not ready to drop the price of bread just yet.

Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Bakers Association, Leon Phillips, told the Express yesterday that it took more than flour to make bread.

Phillips, the owner of Chee Mooke Bakery in Port of Spain, claimed that the other ingredients used to produce bread and other pastries had not reduced. In fact, Phillips said he was forced to raise wages between six and eight per cent because of external factors. "In between the price of flour rising and an escalating inflation rate, we had to raise employee wages because if there was none there would be no bread," he said.

Phillips added that before any decision to reduce prices were implemented, all the bakers would need to hold a meeting to discuss what their budget was like.

He added that in spite of the ups and downs bakers faced in the price of flour and other ingredients within the last four months, bread was still "very cheap" in Trinidad and Tobago.

Communications manager at the National Flour Mills, Simone Harris, said the company would not be reducing the price of its products. She said since it did not significantly increase the prices on any of its flour when wheat was at an all-time high earlier this year, prices would stay the same.

Vice president at Nutrimix, Judy Lalchan, said the decrease was possible because the company was able to increase its storage capacity, allowing it to purchase more goods at a lower price.


Source: Trinidad Express Newspapers
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161384940