Three new flour mills are expected to drive flour prices down to a stable and competitive level, giving industries dependent on flour for manufacturing a cheaper but quality alternative.
Premium bread manufacturer Gardenia Bakeries Philippines Inc. said two new flour mills–Atlantic Grains Inc. and Asian Grains Corp. which had been operating in the last two years—reduced the price of their flour to P690 to P700 per 25kg bag.
“This will benefit bakers and consumers. We noticed that recently there has been a spike on bread consumption and other flour-based products,” Gardenia president Simplico Umali said at the sidelines of a business conference in Makati City.
Industry data showed flour sold by the traditional flour millers were priced slightly higher at P710 to P720 a bag.
A third player, Interflour Mill Inc., will soon join the flour milling indsutry in 2017. The Philippine subsidiary is a unit of Interflour Group PTE Ltd. of Singapore.
It recently secured almost P1 billion loan from BDO Unibank Inc.
Compared with local flour, imports are still cheaper at P670 to P680 a bag.
Umali said Gardenia was using a small portion of imported flour as a complementary mix to the locally milled product.
