what happened to bread prices?!

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
as i am european staple food is for me potatoes and bread. can't imagine going without them. potatoes like potatoes, no big deal, more or less same taste everywhere - and DR variety is good. but bread... bread is big thing. local variety is so horrible no words can describe it (no offence to DR in particular, english sliced bread is just as nasty). i was then, very happy to discover that jose luis in POP carried quite edible bread (made by some germans-run bakery, i believe).

when we first started buying this bread it was 43 pesos (tiny loaf) and 27.50 pesos for a small sweet bun. both very nice. few months ago (about 4) prices went up to 53 something and 30 something. today i saw new prices: 81 pesos for bread and 43.50 for the bun. what on earth? it is not a tiny step up on prices, it's almost 50% more! i am speechless. where did it come from?

only good thing coming out of it: miesposo decided we will now buy directly from german bakery in sosua. yummy. hope they did not rise prices by 50%!
 

wuarhat

I am a out of touch hippie.
Nov 13, 2006
1,378
89
48
There are two things that I can think of that are contributing to this. One is that the wolrd seems to have decided to use agricultural products as a potential solution to its energy supply problems (ie ethanol and biodiesel). This has diverted alot of the agricultural infrastructure resources such as fields, tractors, fertilizer, irrigation, and everything else it takes to grow stuff, from the production of food, into the production of energy. The other is the new wealth of the so called emerging markets (ie Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America) has created billions of people who are no longer satisfied with the meager diets that the people in these areas had been used to in the past. So the prices of foods are getting hammered from both sides of the supply and demand equation.
 

Rocky

Honorificabilitudinitatibus
Apr 4, 2002
13,993
208
0
111
www.rockysbar.com
We buy giant sacs of flour.
I'm told that the price just jumped last week from 1,200 pesos per sac, to 3,000.
Bread prices followed, of course.
 

Matilda

RIP Lindsay
Sep 13, 2006
5,485
338
63
The bread we sell in the colmado has just gone up in price too. We have to sell individual breads now at 6 pesos rather than 5. And I thought I read somewhere that bread was going down in price???
 
Jan 5, 2006
1,582
38
0
There was a price increase in flour from the local mills at the end of January. The government is now paying bakeries a subsidy for the bread that the locals buy for $3RD each.

I agree with you about the quality of the local bread. A good French or Italian breadmaker in DR is a treasure!
 

UP_time

New member
Aug 16, 2003
37
0
0
Yes...why exactly does the bread taste like it does?
I have to toast it just to be able to eat it, or flood it with mayonaise.
Try the potato bread sold at Ole .
Its very good, somewhat like Italian bread sold in the New England area.
Pan de Agua is now 6 pesos each here in Cotui
 

Lambada

Gold
Mar 4, 2004
9,478
410
0
80
www.ginniebedggood.com
Info about subsidy here Listin Diario 21st. Jan
El Dinero - Gobierno acuerda subsidiar al pan* Gobierno

and El Caribe 22nd. Jan
http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo_multimedios.aspx?id=152402&guid=4D900D1FF39245EC9261C49C81992A44&Seccion=63

Given the recent increase referred to above I'm wondering if the subsidy has got diverted to the political campaign..........?

At my bakery prices went up a 3/4 weeks ago - French loaves from 22 pesos to 25, integral from 3 pesos a roll to 4 - Benji said because of flour price increases. I was there today and there were no extra increases - so maybe if price of a sack of flour went up last week, there are more increases to come?
 
Jan 5, 2006
1,582
38
0
Just a few minutes ago on The Today Show, they mentioned that the price of wheat in the US has more than doubled in the past 10 months, so it's not a DR only problem. :(
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
went to sosua, spent 2000 pesos on food: german carniceria and german bakery. sure enough as soon as we enter - no prices on breads - they went up YESTERDAY and new labels are not ready yet. prices went up by 25%...

i understand how it works as far as wheat prices and so on, i thought, however that countries have reserves of staples that can be released so that prices of actual end products (like bread) will not go sky-high.

first it's platanos, bananas and habichuela and now bread...
 

DRob

Gold
Aug 15, 2007
8,234
594
113
dv8,

Unfortunately, those reserves are relatively low right now and in the near future, because of the increase in demand. Frankly, you can expect quite a few things to be more expensive going forward.

There's an interesting article in today's New York Times, in which Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke is basically described as inventing "solutions" as he goes. There are just too many variables at play (fuel and food crunch, real estate market collapse, credit crisis, regional instability, overbuying of treasury notes by sovereigns, fall of the dollar, etc.,) so none of the traditional models work.

The natural instinct is to save cash and spend rather frugally for a while. Which, of course, only makes the problem worse.
 

Rocky

Honorificabilitudinitatibus
Apr 4, 2002
13,993
208
0
111
www.rockysbar.com
i understand how it works as far as wheat prices and so on, i thought, however that countries have reserves of staples that can be released so that prices of actual end products (like bread) will not go sky-high.
It's a fundamental principle of business.
If one is to sell current inventory at a lesser price than it costs him to replace it, he will then be trading a given quantity of inventory for a lesser amount, as well as suffering additional losses due to operating costs.
The same principle applies in reverse as well, in that a person/company who/that has paid a higher price for a product than it's current selling price, would be forced to sell it at an inferior price than he paid.

There is no escaping this principle, except through bankruptcy.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
"it's all connected" isn't it? this year we are to start working on building a house and estimated costs are already much higher than last year. furthermore - it looks like we'd have to finish construcion by the end of the year so we do not get caught up in the next rise.
and now it looks like we'd have to be even more stingy and yes, just like AZB miesposo is thinking of making his car run on gas...
 

Rocky

Honorificabilitudinitatibus
Apr 4, 2002
13,993
208
0
111
www.rockysbar.com
"it's all connected" isn't it? this year we are to start working on building a house and estimated costs are already much higher than last year. furthermore - it looks like we'd have to finish construcion by the end of the year so we do not get caught up in the next rise.
and now it looks like we'd have to be even more stingy and yes, just like AZB miesposo is thinking of making his car run on gas...
Some odd 20 years ago, a buddy sold his business in Cabarete and was going to take a year off to build his house.
Unfortunately, he sold it in pesos and the very next day the pesos halved in value and the house cost him double to build.
Shyte happens.