Expect local bread to get smaller but become more expensive at the same time.
Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda made this rather depressing prediction as wheat, eggs, and sugar--all vital ingredients to breadmaking--have all shot up in price.
Salceda even has a clever word for it: "shrinkflation".
“Bread will probably be the hardest hit by shrinkflation. Wheat prices have increased by 165 percent. At that point, breadmakers will probably both increase prices and shrink sizes,” the economist-solon said in a statement Sunday night, July 17.
Last March, Salceda warned of higher bread prices amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which affected the trade of wheat.
“Egg prices are also threatening to go out of control. Sugar supply is already problematic, noted the Bicolano.
“What we are likely to see us shrinkflation. Goods getting smaller instead of higher prices," he noted.
Salceda said that while the government continues to try to control price hikes and resolve supply issues, manufacturers and millers can “fortify their products with vitamins and minerals".
“Nutrition should be part of Science for Change, which is the DOST’s (Department of Science and Technology) flagship program. This should be one of the most relevant and immediate applications.
“Secretary dela Pena also asked millers and breadmakers to consider other alternatives and additives to maintain nutritional value without increasing prices or reducing sizes significantly...So, in the meantime, while we solve the structural issues affecting price and supply, we can adapt," the lawmaker said.
Salceda already made the call to manufacturers in April.
Salceda says he will work with the Food and Nutrition Research Institute to create a prescribed guide for breadmakers so they may come up with bread that has similar nutritional value, but at lower cost.