Cakes, buns may cost more

 

The not-so-sweet news: The prices of items at the bakeries are expected to soar. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star

PETALING JAYA: The potential increase in the price of 50kg sugar packs used in bakeries is causing concern as it may rise by 20% or more.

And if this happens, prices of items at the bakeries will soar too.

Malaysian Bakery, Biscuit, Confectionery, Mee and Kuay Teow Merchants Association president Chaang Tuck Cheong said the current price of sugar for a 50kg pack is RM160.

“At 20%, this will increase to nearly RM200,” he said.

Affected will be common baked products such as pastries, sweets, confectioneries, cakes, bread, cookies, muffins and pies.

However, Chaang said a way to get around this is if sugar added to a product is kept modest, making the rise in production costs minimal.

YT Frozen Food (M) Sdn Bhd director Edmund Teoh said he had gotten wind of the price increase too.

“The price of a 50kg sugar pack has followed market price, with previous increases of only a few ringgit. However, this time, it could exceed 20%,” he said, adding that so far the suppliers’ plans to increase the price of sugar was verbal.

“The final pricing details will be provided later,” he said.

“If the increase exceeds 20%, the price of YT Frozen Food products will be adjusted accordingly.”

Expressing their concerns, Teoh said its manufacturing facility required 100 50kg packets of sugar every month.

“A 20% increase of each pack would end up quite substantial for us,” he said.

Sundry shop owner Cheng pointed out that the price increase for refined sugar only affected commercial ones, and would not influence the price per kg of government-subsidised sugar.

“The price of 1kg packs sold to domestic consumers is RM2.85 each, so it will not be affected,” he said. However, Cheng warned that the increase in commercial sugar might cause a rush to buy the subsidised sugar.

“If this happens, it will result in a lower supply of sugar for the rakyat,” he said. - Star