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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Bakers group seeks DTI intervention to hold back flour price hike

MANILA, Philippines - A bakers' group sought Monday the intervention of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in having millers "roll back" or at least hold off plans to increase prices of flour at least until July or August.

In an interview with dzBB radio, Philippine Baking Industry head Simplicio Umali Jr on Monday said that bakers are now feeling the brunt of elevated flour prices, noting that while big bakeries have managed to hold back, smaller bakeries have already been forced to hike prices.

"Hindi pa nagtataas ng oresyo sa big bakeries pero sa maliit sa Divisoria, tumaas na noong nakaraang linggo (Bigger bakeries have not increased prices but the smaller ones, particularly in Divisoria, had hiked prices last week)," Umali said.

"Ina-appeal namin huwag taasan ang presyo ng arina hanggang July or August. Sa September or October, sana unti-unti ibaba ang presyo kung bababa ang presyo ng wheat (We appeal to them not to raise prices until July or August. We might see a decrease in prices of wheat by September or October)," he added.

Umali said his group had written the Trade Department last June 2 and sought its intervention. He said the group plans to follow up its request this week.

He said the basis for their request to the DTI and to the flour millers was that wheat prices were going down, from $15 per bushel last April to $13.27 per bushel in June.

By September, he said the prices are due to go down to $10.67 per bushel due to an expected bigger harvest in September.

Umali said flour millers presently purchase wheat at the $13 per bushel level.

On the other hand, Umali said that barring any drought, Australia is expected to hike its wheat production to 24 million tons this year, compared to 13 million tons last year.

"Kung maibaba ang presyo ngayon at least makakatulong ito huwag ito tumaas. Maintain nila ngayon ang presyo nila in the next few months bakasakali maibababa pa nila (If they cannot bring down their prices, at least they should not raise prices for the next few months)," he said. - GMANews.TV


News copied without permission from Yahoo!News.

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