Local bakers on Thursday said that the strong peso should be able to reduce prices of wheat and lead to corresponding price reduction of locally-milled flour.
“The improving foreign exchange rate should offset partly the rising cost of wheat. The Department of Trade and Industry can ask flour millers to justify flour price changes and take into account the forex improvement,” said Jun Umali, president of Philippine Baking Industry (PhilBaking).
Umali said the price of high protein bread flour is placed at P920 per 25-kilogram bag.
The price monitoring report of the DTI showed that the prevailing price of hard remained steady at a range of P880 to a high of P930 per sack for hard flour and P790 to P800 per bag for the soft flour.
The peso has strengthened to P41.58 against the US dollar and that means it would be cheaper to import, bakers said.
However, Ric Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (PAFMIL) said that prices of wheat are going up because of the drought that hit wheat-growing areas of Russia and Eastern Europe.
The drought in the US also affected corn and soybean production triggering a shift in the supply of wheat for animal feed, he said.
Pinca said that US wheat is now priced at $ 9.26 per bushel from $ 7.26 in May.[PNA]
“The improving foreign exchange rate should offset partly the rising cost of wheat. The Department of Trade and Industry can ask flour millers to justify flour price changes and take into account the forex improvement,” said Jun Umali, president of Philippine Baking Industry (PhilBaking).
Umali said the price of high protein bread flour is placed at P920 per 25-kilogram bag.
The price monitoring report of the DTI showed that the prevailing price of hard remained steady at a range of P880 to a high of P930 per sack for hard flour and P790 to P800 per bag for the soft flour.
The peso has strengthened to P41.58 against the US dollar and that means it would be cheaper to import, bakers said.
However, Ric Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (PAFMIL) said that prices of wheat are going up because of the drought that hit wheat-growing areas of Russia and Eastern Europe.
The drought in the US also affected corn and soybean production triggering a shift in the supply of wheat for animal feed, he said.
Pinca said that US wheat is now priced at $ 9.26 per bushel from $ 7.26 in May.[PNA]
