Pandesal is 50 centavos cheaper
Posted on May 3rd, 2009
Pandesal is part of being a Filipino. Most families have pandesal and coffee for breakfast. And now, here’s good news about pandesal – the Philippine Federation of Bakery Association, Inc. announced that starting Tuesday, the prices of pandesal as well as the loaf bread will be 50 centavos cheaper.
Luisito Chavez, vice president of the bakers’ federation said that the prices of pandesal weighing 20-25 grams were brought down to P1.50 per piece. Together with pandesal, the loaf bread being sold by community bakers would also be slashed 50 centavos a loaf, Chavez said.
“Flour prices have gone down from as much as P950 per bag in the past several months to just more than P800, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through Undersecretary Zenaida Magalaya, also asked us to bring prices down, so we did,†he added.
The 20-25 gram pandesal was actually specially formulated as a result of the bakers’ recent meeting with the DTI. Chavez said that the agreement on the size of the pandesal was for the common masa, and at the same time to boost the pandesal industry.
Aside from the rollback of the flour prices, Chavez said that one of the reasons for reduction of pandesal price is that there are other food products that Filipinos could eat as a substitute for the pandesal. “That’s actually the biggest reason. We’d like to promote the eating of pandesal. Prices of rice are very low, and instant noodles are also gaining popularity among Filipinos. We need to protect the industry. If we don’t, we’ll lose our market,†he said.
Chavez is making an appeal to all bakers nationwide to implement the said price rollback and said that the price of P1.50 for the 20-25 gram pandesal is very reasonable, which the DTI agree upon. He also said that there could be further price reduction in the future, that is if more good developments take place. They will continue to monitor their cost and the market.
