Your bread and coffee will cost you more: they expect a sharp increase in the price of food due to high wheat costs

The increase in wheat prices of around 22% could lead to an increase in the cost of bread for Mexican consumers by the same percentage, said Amador Méndez, president of the National Association of Suppliers of the Bread Industry (Anpropan) on Saturday.

Mendez explained that the sector is going through a difficult situation due to the increase in the price of raw materials and this year it will be much more complicated by the effect of the war in Ukraine.

Presenting the 2022 Mexipan Fair, which will take place next July, Mendez said that if bread prices rise and wages do not rise in the same proportion, there will be a decrease in demand.

After two years of not holding the Mexipan Fair due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 edition will take place from July 20 to 23 at the Citibanamex Center in Mexico City at a time of sharp increase in commodity prices that has led to a sharp rise in inflation around the world.

Méndez explained that the bakery industry operates in Mexico in a free market without regulation or controlled prices, so depending on the increase in input prices each business will decide to maintain prices or increase them moderately.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the 56,000 businesses in the sector were forced to close and now the invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine, which began in February, is the last factor that is causing a rise in the price of wheat worldwide, affecting the bakery industry sector.

The bread culture in Mexico is one of the most important in the world with more than two thousand varieties of bread, which is a global record.

In Mexico, an average of 33.5 kilos per capita per year of all kinds of bread is consumed as it is a food from the basic basket.

The Mexipan 2022 Fair, the largest in Mexico and leader in Latin America, will offer a face-to-face and virtual business platform with more than 200 suppliers from the bakery, confectionery, chocolate and ice cream industry.

The Mexican bakery industry employs more than 160,000 workers and is one of the most important in the food sector, accounting for 11% of national sales in this genre.

According to Anpropan, the market value of this industry is approximately 57 billion pesos (about 2.85 billion dollars) with annual growth rates of 2% to 3%, although in the last 10 years there has been a slight trend of annualized decline of 0.2%.

In Mexipan 2022, there will be demonstrations of innovation trends in the sector with a sample of the talent of professionals of national and international origin in the industry (chefs, technicians and teachers).

EFE

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