Price increases on some bakeries with hikes up to 12.5%

The price of several bakery products in Macau has seen an increase from January to February this year, the regular price investigation report from the Consumer Council (CC) shows.

According to the latest report on the topic, released yesterday, the CC found that bakery stores have raised the prices of some items with increases that reached in some cases 12.5% month-on-month.

As in previous situations, the CC investigated the prices of eight bakery items that the entity, operating under the Secretariat for Economy and Finance, considers to be the “most popular” among the residents of Macau. In total, 75 bakery shops have been surveyed.

The items included pineapple buns, croissants, sausage bread, Chinese-style custard tarts, sliced white bread (in packages of four and eight slices), bread with luncheon meat, and sweet bread with coconut filling, known as Gai Mei Bao.

For the first item, five stores have increased the price of the product with increases of 50 avos and 1 pataca. Such increase accounted effectively for price growth between 8.3% and 12.5%.

On the other hand, there was one store located in Taipa that lowered the price of this product by 1 pataca (-16.67%).

Similar price increases were also found for the “sweet bread with coconut filling” (+8.33% to +12.5%) while for other items such as “sliced white bread” the increases recorded were between 3.85% and 8.33% month-to-month.

For some other items, such as the “bread with luncheon meat” the CC inspectors found that the large majority of the bakery stores did not have the item on sale at the time of the inspection, while with those that had, price increases recorded in several stores were between 5.26% and 6.67%, similar to what happened with “Sausage Bread” (+5.26 to +7.14%).

The two products that registered less price fluctuation were the croissants and the Chinese-style custard tarts with the prices of the last remaining unchanged in all but one store, which lowered the price by 50 avos.

Beyond the survey

A recent visit made by the Times to several bakeries in the Central District in the last few days also found similar price changes, particularly for items that are not part of the CC survey.

In most cases, the increase was of 1 pataca for the items priced in between 12 to 14 patacas, i.e. 7.14% to 8.33%.

During this visit, a shopkeeper of one of the bakery stores also told the Times that particularly in the case of the “Salt Bread” (the bread usually used to sell the Macau famous Pork Chop Buns) the price of the product, in this shop, has increased some 55.6% in the last seven to eight years. She noted that since this bread is later used by many food and beverage establishments to cook and prepare other food menu items such as sandwiches and toast, it is likely that the increase will also influence the price of those consumer products.