DTI to monitor closely flour, sugar, bread prices

The Department of Trade and Industry will closely monitor prices of bread, flour and sugar, amid reported price adjustments for the two ingredients. DTI Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya said a reported P100-per-bag drop in flour prices should bring down prices of bread, by as much as P2.50 per loaf. "'Yan ay ating mino-monitor. Maganda sana kung totoong P100 (per bag) ang ibinaba. So far ang alam natin P20 to 40 pa.... 'Pag may P40 na pagbaba sa presyo ng arina... dapat P1 ang pagbaba sa presyo ng loaf bread. Kung P100, dapat mga P2.50 kung sakali," Maglaya said in an interview Wednesday on dzBB radio. However, she said their monitoring of prices will be "limited" to regular bread, and not the wheat or specialty breads. She also said they are also monitoring the prices of sugar, another ingredient in bread, amid reports of a price hike of as much as P4 per kilo. Maglaya said her office may ask the Sugar Regulatory Administration on the price hike, saying their monitoring indicates a P1-per-kilo hike. "We will be keeping watch over these items. We do not want anyone to exploit the situation," she said. On the other hand, Maglaya said the prices of wheat, an ingredient used in making flour, have been going down. "Maganda ang takbo ng presyo, habang patuloy bumababa ito patuloy natin inaasahan bumaba presyo ng arina at eventually presyo ng tinapay," she said. — LBG, GMA News