A meeting between the Minister for Competitiveness Censu Galea and the bakers' cooperative on Friday morning has reportedly led to some sort of "agreement" over the issue of the price of Maltese bread. However both sides refused to give details, saying these will be made public on Monday.
In previous meetings between Minister Galea and members of the association, bakers declared they are no longer ready to cover additional expenses following the rise in the price of paraffin, announced in the Budget 2005 speech, and flour.
They were demanding the government to issue a written guarantee to refund the additional expense of Lm 0.02c (2 cents) per loaf baked.
This has led bakers to threat to raise the price of loaves independently, in spite of the fact that the Maltese loaf price is controlled by the government.
Bakers have insisted that it is becoming harder to continue covering additional costs. Last August, following a rise in the price flour sacks by 56c, bakers negotiated a Lm0.01c (1 cent) increase in the price of the large Maltese traditional loaf. The new price of the loaf was set at Lm0.17c (17cents).
On the other hand flour importers Federated Millers plc stated that the government should no longer intervene in the setting of flour prices and claimed that the government should have liberalized the concerned market on Malta’s accession to the European Union (EU). “The price order is obsolete," a spokesman for the millers said, adding that “the price of flour is set according to the supply and demand for wheat on the international market”.
It is not yet known whether these requests were acceded to on Friday morning.
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