Pinoy Tasty, generic bread, debuts at P36 per loaf

Filipino bakers and flour millers and retailers on Tuesday launched the country's first nationally distributed generic bread loaf: Pinoy Tasty. Pinoy Tasty sells for P36 per 450 gram loaf, compared to regular brands that sell for P42 to P54. Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said the price should be kept despite changes in the cost of flour and other ingredients. Pinoy Tasty is cheaper because it contains only the basic ingredients and is subsidized by bakers and flour millers.
“We are holding the price at least for one month based on current flour prices," Walter Co, president of the Philippine Baking Industry Group (Philbaking), said at the launch of Pinoy Tasty at the Board of Investments building in Makati. Makers of the Pinoy Tasty will make the bread available to consumers Monday via 500 supermarkets and 800 convenience stores and drugstores. Barkers of the new bread include Gardenia Philippines, Creative Bakers, Uncle George, Marby, MLM Fortune Bakeshop, FrenchBakers, Sunmaru, Julies, and community bakeries under the Filipino-Chinese Bakery Association Inc. and Philippine Federation of Bakeries Association Inc. There would be no fix allocation for Pinoy Tasty in the production schedules of Gardenia, Simplicio Umali, general manager of Gardenia and former president of Philbaking, said. “The production will be based on consumer demand. We still don’t know how the consumers will shift to the generic [bread]. But we hope they will start buying bread more because right now there is a lot of excess capacities in the industry to meet the spike in demand," he said. In addressing possible supply shortages of Pinoy Tasty, Umali said bakers would make sure that retailers have specifically assigned suppliers. In terms of packaging, Pinoy Tasty will carry the names specific makers so that consumers may choose their preferred baker. Unlike the regular brands, Pinoy Tasty is not enriched with milk, eggs, margarine, cream and butter, and uses the cheaper non-vat washed sugar. Still, Nazarita Tacandong, director of the Food and Drug Administration, said that Pinoy Tasty is nutritious because bakers use flour fortified with Iron and Vitamin A. — With M.R. Gavin/VS, GMANews