After three months, the long awaited bread subsidy has finally reached the pockets of the bread bakers. It was promised back in June when Minister of Agriculture, Jose Mai, announced it in the House, and explained that it would run for six months from June to December.
So when August rolled around and there was still no subsidy, bakers became concerned. Legally, they weren't allowed to raise the prices of the 16 ounce loaf of bread from where it currently stands at $1.75, even though the price of flour had increased. Absorbing that cost was putting a major strain on them, and one baker-and-parliamentarian, Tony Herrera, stood up during the last Senate meeting to voice this concern.
Tony Herrera, Baker/Senator
"They like use the term 'knock chest,' when the minister beat his chest to say, the UDP is just waiting for us to raise the 16 ounces, but we will give a 25 cents subsidy. Next day? Ninety days now, you know, we still haven't gotten that subsidy. But let me tell you something, more important to that, the price of flour since that subsidy was said, from $84 to $102.50. That's a big increment. That's a big increment. So that shilling gets swallowed, just like holes on the Corozal streets. If you drop it, it's gone, just like that."
But since then, we can confirm that as of last week, all ten bakeries who make the 16 ounce bread have gotten their subsidies for both June and July.
The distribution started on the 2nd and 7th of September, and the team at the ministry are currently on the road, tackling smaller bakeries who may not have applied to ensure that they too can benefit from the subsidy.
But why didn't the program start in June as intended? Well, according to Controller of Supplies, Lenox Nicholson, the Ministry of Finance was delayed in providing the money for the subsidy. And once the Agriculture Ministry's team began processing the applications, they found that a lot of them were either incomplete or ineligible and so they had to work with the bakers to revise the applications.
Nicholson also added that August payments will be made either this week or next week. And as we've reported before, the amount paid is based on the volume of flour each bakery uses to produce the 16 ounce loaf in a given month.
