Bread Prices Will Rise, But We'll Benefit Twice: Fact

The "Fact" newspaper reports: "Recently, the price of bread has once again increased by 10-20 drams. The previous price hike occurred about six months ago. This means we can note that in the last six months, the price of bread has risen by 20-30 drams, which, let's agree, is quite a significant blow to consumers with average and low incomes, who make up approximately 70 percent of the population.

To understand what is really happening and why bread has suddenly increased in price overnight, "Fact" attempted to contact several bread-producing companies. The Martuni-based "Aray-1" bakery informed us that they continuously bake bread from local flour, and recently they have not raised their bread prices. In other words, they have not been dependent on international flour prices. Regarding the bakery's operations, the company's accountant told us in an interview that they will soon stop bread production because it has become unprofitable.

"All our income goes towards paying for electricity and gas, leaving nothing left because our equipment is old and consumes a lot of electricity," said the factory accountant.

We also tried to reach the management of the "Bokonik" bakery chain, but some of the phone numbers listed in the information base for the company’s branches went unanswered. One branch informed us that their bread prices have not increased. However, our reporter noted an increase in prices at their bakery. When asked at what price they acquire flour, a staff member in the supply department said she could not answer such questions.

"Please approach the branch managers with your inquiries. I am not authorized to answer such questions," said the staff member.

We also could not connect with the "Yerevan City" supermarket chain owned by "Alex Grig," despite the fact that both their offerings and sales of bread are the highest there. All our calls went unanswered, although our journalistic observations showed that this retail chain was indeed the first to raise prices for bakery products, with lavash increasing by 25 drams and bread by 10.

The director of the "Sevan Bread Factory" LLC, Ashot Avetisyan, told "Fact" in an interview that the price of only lavash from their product line has increased, since with the rise in flour prices, it has not been possible to keep lavash prices the same.

"The reason for the increase in bread prices is the cost of flour. The price of a sack has gone up by 3 dollars. Previously, we acquired it for 21 dollars, now it has become 23 dollars. But the flour price may rise even more since it has already increased in Russia," said A. Avetisyan.

It turns out that this price increase may not be the last, and in the future, bread prices could rise even further. Therefore, we are left with either giving up eating bread or reducing our intake. In both cases, you will benefit twice: you won’t gain weight and you’ll save money."

For more details, refer to today’s issue of the newspaper.