The Minister of Supply and Internal Trade, Abo Zeid Mohamed Abo Zeid, held a meeting yesterday with owners of bakeries to discuss developing methods for continued bread subsidies as part of the President’s 100-day plan.
Abdallah Ghorab, Director of the Bakeries Branch at the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC), said the meeting discussed the necessity of fixing the price of subsidised bread at 10 piastres, replacing three existing quality categories with one.
Ghorab added that fixing price of a loaf and its weight at 140 grams would save the state EGP 100 per sack of flour. This would help reduce the EGP 21 billion spent annually on bread production.
In addition, bakeries will demand a late supply incentives allowance, particularly because the Ministry announced its intention to distribute these allowances among supply merchants until July 2012. The Ministry has been asked to back date the late incentive allowance to 2009.
Atteya Hammad, Vice President of the Bakeries Branch, confirmed the necessity of increasing bread prices in light of the high costs of production inputs, particularly labour. The price increase should reflect the increase of these costs. Farag Wahba, Director of Bakeries Branch at Cairo Chamber of Commerce, said bakeries’ owners will also demand the waiver of all outstanding fines.
