We call them panaderos, they are our neighborhood bakers that sell our favorite pandesal and other breads. But they are a dying breed. Many small bakers have long been experiencing difficulties since the pandemic. And at this time when everything seems to be skyrocketing in prices, panaderos are not exempt. Now, prices of wheat have gone up to more than ₱1,000 per 25-kilogram bag from a steady price of ₱860 per bag before Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russian ruler’s war against Ukraine has triggered a shortfall in world supply of wheat. Combined, Russia and Ukraine supply 30 percent of wheat for the global market. Already, wheat prices have gone up to over $500 per metric ton from $330 MT before the war. Aside from high wheat prices, bakers are faced with high cost of ingredients like sugar, yeast, and liquefied petroleum gas or LPG. With that, many small bakers have ceased operations. “We are a dying heritage,” Asosasyon ng Panaderong Pilipino (APP) acting-president Luisito Chavez said adding that many of the group’s members had closed during the pandemic, and the surviving bakeries are barely making profit. As such, these panaderos are asking government for assistance to lower their cost of production and keep their livelihood. One of their wishes is a policy intervention for government to standardize bread prices to at least ₱4 per piece for regular pandesal from the current ₱2 to ₱2.50. This would help them adjust to inflation, which rose to three-year high of 6.1 percent in June. Regular pandesal currently sells at ₱2 to ₱2.50 per piece, while jumbo pandesal costs about ₱5. The APP said that based on real value, the price of regular pandesal should be ₱4 per piece and ₱8 for jumbo pandesal. The APP has also proposed to adopt the same weight standard for pandesal. At present, the regular pandesal weighs 35 to 38 grams a piece. While small bakers did not raise their prices due to competition, they resort to product reengineering by reducing the weight of pandesal by 18 grams per piece. Bakers said that regulating the price of pandesal would avoid cutthroat competition and allow community bakers to co-exist without harming each other’s livelihood. The Philippine Association of Flour Millers Inc. is also asking the government to reduce tariffs on imported ingredients for bread production to help stabilize the price of local bread. Amid these difficulties, the APP estimated that 20 percent of community bakeries already closed shop, and if there is no government intervention, the rate of closure could go up to 50 percent. The APP said the share of community bakeries to overall pandesal producers shrank to 19 percent from 40 percent in less than three years. We have a situation here that not only deprives us the convenience of buying pandesal, but also of additional people losing their jobs, and lesser contribution to the economy.