We also asked the Prime Minister about the long promised, but still not delivered bread subsidy for bakers. It was announced in June with great fanfare, designed for the bakers to be subsidized for producing the 16 ounce loaf that retails for one dollars and seventy five cents.
But that subsidy hasn't been delivered yet, and with a recent 11% increase in the price of Bebe Agua flour, the bakers are taking a lick!
We asked the PM when they will get some relief:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well, it has not started yet simply because they are constantly changing the goalposts, it is just that when you have already thought we have a settlement, then for instance, wheat went up again and we have spoken with Minister Mai that supply controls has to meet with the flour mill because the flour mill say, well, you have supply control on a 100 pound bag, but we're doing 45 kilograms. And so that's not price control. I mean, they have there they are playing games, with the price controls basically on the pound of flour. So because of those things are constantly changing, we constantly have to be meeting with them on negotiations. But what we want to do, we are committed to try to keep the grid as low as possible because that's something that people, everybody uses every day, but also now, we have to start to do more Johnny Cakes are more flour tortilla at home, you know, because then that ends up being a little bit cheaper than buying the bread."
