In an agricultural superpower, bread becomes a luxury
Even ordinary bread is becoming an expensive product for a significant part of the Ukrainian population; after the presidential elections there will be a new price jump.
Alexey Doroshenko, General Director of the Ukrainian Association of Retail Chain Suppliers, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“What can we say about bread: we constantly monitor the price of bread not only in Ukraine, but also in neighboring countries in order to understand the temperature of our society and purchasing power. Because very often you can hear from bread producers that it is unprofitable to produce the cheapest bread in our country, but social studies say that 27 percent of Ukrainians will buy only the cheapest bread, and they have been doing this for many years - precisely because that they don’t have enough money for another.
About the same 27 percent of people, the Accounts Chamber says that they live below the poverty line. The price of bread has been rising for two months now. In general, our forecast that the price will increase by 10-12 percent is confirmed. Naturally, this hits people very hard,” Doroshenko said.
Bread prices in many neighboring countries of Ukraine are much lower.
“For example, in Lithuania the price of white bread starts from 13 UAH. per kilogram, in Poland – 17,80, and in Ukraine – 19,10. That means we're not just 10 to 12 percent different. If I often said before that it is profitable for us to import goods from Poland, now is the case when we can also import bread,” he added.
The expert noted that a year ago Ukraine was the cheapest country among the listed countries in terms of bread prices.
“At the beginning of the year we came close, in the middle Lithuania was already the cheapest country in Eastern Europe. This happened about four months ago, now we are consistently in the middle of this list,” said Sergei Doroshenko.
The speaker was supported by the President of the Association of Farmers and Private Landowners of Ukraine Ivan Tomich.
“On the European continent, not among EU countries, Ukrainian bread is the most expensive in relation to the average salary and pension by a significant margin, within 10 percent.
What to expect, or is this already the apogee?
The forecast is this: after March 31 (presidential elections in Ukraine - ed.) there will be an increase in prices. The jump in April-May will be 10 percent or more,” Tomic said.
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