News Desk

The soaring price of raw materials has made bakery items around 20 percent costlier, affecting the consumers from the low-income groups.

Bread, biscuit and other bakery items are widely consumed both in rural and urban areas in the country. But the recent price hike of bakery items has put pressure on the already limited budget of the low-income people.

“The latest hike in the prices of flour, edible oil and sugar--- the main ingredients for confectionary items, has forced the bakery owners to increase the prices,” said Mohammad Jalal Uddin, President of Bangladesh Bread Biscuit-O Confectionery Prostutkarak Samity (BBBCPS).
The price of bakery and confectionary items has increased by 20 per cent from January, he said.

The price of bread has increased by Tk 5-Tk 10 per packet in the capital city. The price of a medium-sized (300 gm) bread soared to Tk 40-50 from Tk 35-40 and a family-size (600 gm) bread now costs Tk75-80 from Tk 65-Tk 70, according to grocers.

The price of a 300-350 gm pack dry cake has jumped to Tk 120 from Tk 100 per, said Md. Roman of Bismillah General Store at Mohammadpur.

“Most of the company has increased the price of bakery items while some company cut the product weight to maintain the previous price,” he said.

The price of orient dry cake (500gm) soared to Tk 130 per pack from Tk 100, dry cake (400gm) soared to Tk 120 per pack from Tk 90, Easy Bakery dry cake (500gm) jumped to Tk 130 per pack from Tk 120, he said.

Ariful Islam, a consumer at Karwan Bazar said, “We usually consume bun, cake, dry cake and loose biscuit as snacks and breakfast. But the price hike of these items has put extra pressure on us and forced us to change our food habit. ”
Prices of loose flour increased by 30.14 percent, loose atta by 12.90 percent in a year, loose palm oil price increased by 39.70 per cent in a year and loose sugar price increased by13.33 percent in a year, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data.

“The main raw materials of bakery items are flour, maida, oil and sugar, and the prices of all the raw materials increased several times in the last couple of years,” said Jalal Uddin, President of BBBCPS, also the owner of the Capital Confectionary.

He said the price of dalda (vegetable fat) rose to Tk 2,200 (16 Kg) from Tk 1,450-1,400(16 kg) in a year, palm oil price increased to Tk 27,000 per drum (200kg) from Tk 16,000 per drum (200kg) in a year.

“There are 5,000 bakery producers and around 2 lakh people are involved with this sector in the country,” he said, adding that many bakeries have shut down their business due to rising production costs.