Bread price to increase in 9 days

By Joyette Mills-Ward
Business Reporter -SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts- THE rumors that have circulated throughout the Federation for weeks regarding an increase in the price of bread and bakery products was confirmed by Ministry of Trade officials yesterday.

According to a press release which quotes H.E. Rosalyn Hazelle, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, the increase will see the price of bread jumping up by as much as 25 cents per loaf.

“The price increases for bread in St. Kitts and Nevis are likely to take effect on July 28th, 2008 and a review of the current situation will take place some time in December,” Hazelle stated.

Bakers had been clamoring to implement an increase in the price of bread and possibly other baked goods for a number of months as they claimed escalating fuel costs were making it impossible to make a profit from the sale of their products.

Some had intimated to SKNVibes.com that ‘dollar bread’ would be sold for EC $1.50, 25 cents more than the $1.25 it was previously increased to.

“We keep going to the government and negotiating and they were telling us to wait a while, hold off on the increase. Meanwhile we are the one’s losing. Some of us are at the point where we plan to increase the prices whether they get back to us or not,” one baker told this media house under the condition of anonymity.   ~~Adz:Right~~

He explained that the only bakery product for which government has the authority to control pricing is ‘dollar bread’ and bakers use their discretion regarding the pricing of their other products.

During his most recent press briefing Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas admitted to the general public that the price of bread would indeed rise but said he did not have all the facts.

“I think Cabinet did receive a formal request and deliberated and I think we have agreed that the price of flour having gone up, they have allowed the price of bread I believe to ... go up. So that maybe a dollar-quart-bread may become a dollar-fifty-bread.

“On the request of the government it took a very long time to deliberate upon it and we have reluctantly agreed for that to take place, but at the same time I believe ... we may have even revisited a lot of concessions that we had given in the past,” the nation’s leader and Minister of Finance said.

The Prime Minister also thanked the bakers for their “understanding” and used the opportunity to emphasize to the consuming public how difficult of a decision it was to make on their part. “I think all things being looked at, we very reluctantly agreed that the price should go up because bread is a basic, basic part of our diet and we are hoping that it will not negatively impact too much on our people.”