Bread, one of the basic products in the Dominican food basket and one of the staples in highest demand makes front-page headlines every time price increases are announced or applied. This time, the Union of Medium and Small Flour Industries (UMPIH) is again placing the issue on the public agenda. In an assembly announced for today, Thursday 5 March 2015, bakers will decide on bread price increases, by around 20%, which will raise the price of one unit of bread (the basic “pan de agua” bread roll) to RD$6.00. The price of bread has increased by 400% since 2002.
At the current price of RD$5.00 for one pan de agua, a family of six eating 12 rolls a day would be spending RD$1,825 of its monthly budget on this product alone. A Dominican family could be spending 16.1% of the highest minimum salary (RD$11,292) on bread.
In response to the news, National Consumer Rights Institute (ProComsumidor) executive director Altagracia Paulino said that an increase in the price of bread was not justified, because the price of raw materials has dropped on the international market.
Housewives Committees Association president Ana Bertilia Cabrera said that with all the increases in the prices of mass consumption products, an increase in the price of bread would be “a final blow to the country’s poorest consumers.” Cabrera called on the bakers to give the government more time to find a solution aimed at preventing any more increases in the price of this basic food item. She said that Dominicans do not have any alternatives to bread, because the other options like plantains and other staples are even more expensive.