Certain companies have increased the price of bread by 10 percent, according to millers. They attribute this rise to the increased wheat prices on the world stock exchanges and regional markets in May, which also saw a 10 percent hike.

Goran Mališić, the president of the Milling and Baking Industry Group at the Chamber of Commerce, told MIA that with the beginning of the harvest, the price is expected to stabilize and decrease, returning to previous levels.

“Certain companies increased the price of bread by 10 percent because the prices of flour increased by ten percent. The rest of the bakery products remain at the same level. We expect the price of bread to stabilize with the beginning of the harvest,” said Mališić.

He mentioned that the quality and quantity of the wheat are still unknown.

“That will be known with the beginning of the harvest. As a Group, we expect the government to maintain last year’s measures for subsidizing farmers regarding wheat and barley – three dinars for a kilogram of delivered wheat and 100 euros per hectare for a yield of at least three tons of barley,” Mališić pointed out.

Last month, some bakers claimed that the price of bread would not increase in the next two months and that its price was stable.

“There are changes in the prices of grain on the world stock exchanges, but for now, at least for the next 1.5 to two months, the price of bread and other basic food products in the country will not change. After a month or two, an analysis will be done considering the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the turbulence in the Middle East, as well as the increase in the price of oil, which could mean a potential higher price of raw materials in food and, in general, the entire industry. Information has arrived from large producers such as Ukraine and Russia that it is not known how the harvests will take place there due to the military actions, which affects the stock market. The FAO pointed out some percentage increase in the price of grain. That, however, is insignificant, and we, as the Agribusiness Chamber, claim that in the coming period there will be stability in the price of food products, at least in the segment of basic products such as grain and bakery products,” said Goran Gjorgjievski from the Agribusiness Chamber of the Union of Chambers of Commerce (CCC).