Paul Lopez reporting
The retail cost of a sixteen-ounce pack bread has gone up by thirty-five cents. Lennox Nicholson is the Controller of Supplies in the Supplies Control Unit.
The final decision was taken to increase the price for the sixteen-ounce slice bread by thirty-five cents which will take the retail price that the consumer pays at the grocery store to one dollar and ten cents. The rationale for it is because the bakers have provided us with substantial information as to their cost of production.
My thing about it is that we dah poor people. Deh have to understand, the government have to understand how poor people have to survive.
It is the most affordable bread option on grocery shelves across the country. But as of today, consumers will have to dig a bit deeper to purchase a pack of sixteen-ounce bread.
Can I take a moment of silence? I guess we just had a moment of silence. It is ridiculous for the fact that Belize has a huge amount of poverty and for both political parties that form government in Belize, we have ups and downs with both of them, but now it has gotten to the point with it gets to the bread. Families can’t even afford the ramen and when it comes to the bread that we were paying one seventy-five for you are talking about raising. I think the prime minister needs to go to the drawing board ASAP.
But it is not solely a government decision. In fact, bakers across the country have been clamoring for a wholesale price increase over the last two years. The Belize Bakers Association initially proposed a seventy-five-cent increase. After lengthy negotiations with the government, a price increase of thirty-five cents was agreed upon. We spoke with an association representative over the phone.
On the phone: Vic Chu, Representative, Belize Bakers Association
We suggested an increase of seventy-five cents
Paul Lopez
And what we got was
Thirty-five cents. The entire association is feeling a bit disappointed, because the price of the pack bread for the sixteen ounce has not been adjusted since 2008. When the price of the plastic bag, the butane price or the gas price for the gas, for the delivery was very low, and also the flour price and sugar.
Lennox Nicholson
It is something we have been grappling with at least since April of 2022 when we were first engaged to look at the control price for the sixteen ounce slice bread. In that time the government had taken decision to subsidize the sector, in the first instance to the tune of one point five million dollars and a further subsidy of some four hundred thousand was actually issued to that sector with a view to maintain that price to where it had been for some time. All of those resources have been disbursed to the sector and those programs have come to an end.
According to Chu, bakers are still underpricing their products even with the thirty-five cents increase, because almost two decades have passed without a price adjustment. And it’s not only the sixteen-ounce pack bread that is seeing an increase in price. According to Chu, other bakery products on grocery shelves will be seeing an increase of at least ten cents.
This increase is helping us to keep us momentarily break for the moment. It helps us to relieve a little bit of pressure because we also have to take into consideration that labor has also increased at the beginning of this year to five dollar and hour. After consideration the public reactions the entire industry made just a slight adjustment on the other category of the bread to a ten cents increase. The other categories are for example the burger bread, the hot dog, the polvo round.
Anthony Nicholas, Belize City Resident
People buy pack bread everyday cause dah everyday we need to eat and that is one for the cheaper options, sausage and pack bread so we cant go wrong with that brother.
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez