Maharashtra Bakery Utpadak Shramik Mahasangh has urged bakery owners to increase their product prices due to the hike in prices of the key ingredients required for manufacturing bakery products The hike in various commodity prices has negatively impacted the bakery industry in Maharashtra. Therefore, the Maharashtra Bakery Utpadak Shramik Mahasangh (MBUSM) has urged the bakery owners of the state to increase the prices of their products. The MBUSM, consisting of about 30,000 bakeries from Maharashtra and 7,000 from Pune, try to resolve issues faced by the bakers in the state. They have planned to increase the product prices by 10%,which will lead to an increase in the price of bakery products by Rs 2 on an average.
Keshav Kshirsagar, president of MBUSM, stated that the industry had already witnessed a dark phase with the loss of 12,000 workers due to the closure of about 15% bakery shops in rural areas in Maharashtra. Therefore, he completely supports the decision taken by the MBUSM. Owing to the soaring prices of ingredients such as flour, sugar, ghee and LPG, Mr Kshirsagar has urged the government to provide such ingredients to the bakery owners at controlled rates. Mr Kshirsagar also stated that although last year the government provided about 7,000 tonnes of subsidised wheat, the quality was poor. As a part of the campaign, the new prices of the bakery products were presented to the collectorate on November 1 this year.  “Most big players such asParle and Britannia have imposed higher rates on their products, yet they manage to get subsidy of about 35% from the Krishi Utpadak Bazaar Samiti,which is located in Punjab. On the other hand, small players do not have enough funds to spend on transportation of ingredients from Punjab and are therefore the worst hit,” says Rajeev Mehra, manager of Honey Bread, a small-sized bakery product manufacturer in Mumbai. Effects on consumers The rise in the bakery products will have an immediate effect on the prices of complementary food items such as vada pav and pav bhaaji, which are in high demand in Mumbai. With the rise of bakery products the price of one laadi of pav that consists of six pieces would be sold at 8-10% more than the existing rates. “Most of the consumers in Mumbai are unable to visit expensive restaurants for elaborate meals. Therefore, the hike in complementary food items will affect consumers from the middle and low income groups who depend on these food items as their regular meal,” says Nihar Basu, manager of Anokha Bread, a small-sized bakery product manufacturer in Mumbai. However, according to Mr Kshirsagar the hike in the bakery products is not likely to affect consumers adversely. He is of the opinion that since consumers have already adjusted to the rise in the other commodities like pulses that rose from Rs 30 to Rs 90,they will not be negatively impacted bythe rise in bakery products by Re 1 or Rs 2. On other hand, there is a possibility that the bakers might adopt some unfair means such as cheating on weights in order to recover from their losses. Sabrina Mitchell |
