Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) today reported that Israel's largest bakeries have asked the committee for price controls to approve a 3.4% increase for price-controlled bread, amounting to NIS 0.15 per loaf, citing an increase in the inputs indices used to set the rate for price-controlled bread.
"The committee considered the bakeries' request to raise the price of bread by this rate, and the matter is now on the desk of the supervisor of prices in the Ministry of Economy and Industry," the Ministry of Finance said today. Price of bread not subject to price controls are considerably higher than prices of price-controlled bread.
Three items in the food market are subject to price controls: eggs, milk, and bread. The types of bread subject to price control are black bread, which costs consumers NIS 5.12 per loaf; white bread (NIS 5.12 per loaf), hallah (NIS 4.99 per loaf); sliced and packaged black bread (NIS 6.86 per loaf), and sliced and packaged white bread (NIS 6.10 per loaf).
Bread prices are supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Industry, headed by Minister of Economy and Industry Eli Cohen, a member of Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu Party.
According to Nielsen figures, sales of price-controlled bread in the retail market total NIS 500 million annually (including VAT). These figures are not complete, because a large proportion of the bread bought in Israel is from specialist stores, not the supermarket chains. Nevertheless, it is clear from the figures that the upcoming price rises will cost the Israeli public tens of millions of shekels a year.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 13, 2018
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