Egypt carries out inspections on bakeries in bid to prevent bread price control breaches
Egyptian authorities have launched an enforcement drive to ensure bakeries comply with state-mandated price controls on bread, the staple of the nation’s 114 million people.
The Consumer Protection Agency said agents across Al Obour, a satellite city of Cairo, have been ordered to inspect bakeries that make non-subsidised bread, or tourists’ bread, and verify they are producing and selling the product at the required weight and price.
Yesterday, many bakeries increased their price. “These campaigns are a follow-up to the directives of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to monitor the market situation on the ground, in light of the implementation of the President’s [Abdel Fattah El Sisi] directives to the government that the citizen should feel a radical and significant decrease in prices,” said the head of the CPA, Ibrahim El Sejini.
A loaf that cost two Egyptian pounds last week now costs 2.5 Egyptian pounds at one bakery in Heliopolis city ($0.05), while another in Haram increased its price from 2.5 to three pounds.
The inspections come amid price increases despite the cost of flour having dropped by more than a third in the past month to 14,000 Egyptian pounds a tonne.
A Minister of Supply and Internal Trade directive this month dictated that the cost of flat loaves of tourist bread weighing 80g had to be capped at 1.5 Egyptian pounds, 40g at 75 piastres and 25g at 50 piastres.
The ministry also set prices for fino bread, an Egyptian variation of a baguette.
Bakery owners attribute price variations across the city to differences in the quality of flour used and shop rent costs.
CPA inspectors in Al Obour reported 16 breaches, accusing bakeries of failing to display prices on labels, manipulating the weight of loaves and selling above official prices.
Those who breached the price control rules were referred to the public prosecutor.
The enforcement follows several reports that free-market bakeries, whose operations and pricing differ from bakeries that sell government-subsidised bread, had not lowered prices for consumers despite the lower cost of flour.
Several Cairo bakers told The National they were disregarding government warnings and continuing to set bread prices based on market factors in a bid to compete with free-market bakeries.
With Egypt’s inflation rate still above 30 per cent, lowering the cost of staples such as bread remains a major economic and political imperative for President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
The government closely regulates the price of subsidised bread, which is sold at five piastres a loaf to about 71 million Egyptians.
Across Egypt, the free-market bread sector has traditionally faced less oversight and enforcement.