Wheat imports cheapened by about $100, but bread price not reduced

Baku/26.01.23/Turan: Since 19 August the cartel of flour mills and bakeries of Azerbaijan announced that they were introducing new prices for wheat flour and bread "due to the current situation on world markets". Since then, prices have fallen significantly in the markets, whereas bread is still sold at old prices on the shelves.

Also, the Anti-Monopoly Service made a statement in August to justify the flour and bread producers. It pointed out the fact of free pricing of goods, including the specified nomenclature. The Service assured consumers that it will continue to monitor the market in order to prevent infringement of the antitrust law in forming prices of flour and bread.

In their statement the representatives of flour mills and bakeries pointed out that the average price of imported food wheat in July was $402.46 per 1 ton, which is up by 67% from the price of an appropriate month in 2021. Based on this information, Turan News Agency calculated that in December wheat was imported at an average price of $308.2/t, 23.4% cheaper than in July last year.            

Total of 125,039 tonnes was purchased abroad in December 2022 with a total declared value of $38.5m.   

For 2022, the volume of wheat imports amounted to 1 million 293.000 tons (+12.6%). Average purchase price of imported wheat over the year was $337.6/t, which is 16.7% more expensive than in 2021.

In August, the price of bread, regardless of weight, rose by 5 gapiks. The retail price of a 500g loaf of traditional (round) bread has since then been 55 gapiks, a 600g loaf of bread 65 gapiks and a 650g loaf of bread 70 gapiks. As a rule, however, the weights of these types of bread are much lower than the ones declared. -08B-