There is a real risk of bread shortages in Ukraine. This was reported to the Ministry of Finance by the President of the All-Ukrainian Association of Bakers and Director of the company «Kyiv Bread» Yuriy Duchenko.
According to him, in June and July, the main bread producers in Ukraine worked at minus or zero.
«Flour prices have risen by 50% in the last few months and continue to rise. If in April we were buying flour at 10,000 per ton, now it costs 15,000, and by November the price is expected to be 16-16,200. Boron in the cost of bread is about 40%. Other raw materials (sugar, sunflower oil, etc.) have risen in price by more than 20% since the beginning of the year. The cost of electricity, logistics, packaging, and so forth is increasing. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the price of bread by 15-20%. If this does not happen, many bakeries may simply stop and bread shortages will begin in the country. Already, a number of businesses are on the verge of shutting down, with some switching to one-shift work», — noted Dudchenko.
According to him, the significant increase in the price of flour is due to the fact that there is a limited supply of the second kind of grain (that is, the one needed for the production of bread) on the domestic market. Many sellers store grain in anticipation of a better price.
Additionally, while some critical infrastructure facilities such as bread factories experienced minimal power outages in July, flour mills incurred significant costs due to the outages.
At the same time, the bakeries are unable to raise the price of bread adequately in line with the increase in raw materials and their costs. As a result, there is a large deficit of funds, and companies are unable to pay their contractual obligations on time.
Source: agronews.ua
