The price of regulated bread in Israel is expected to rise by 36% on Sunday – a blow for low-income families.
Regulated bread includes sliced and unsliced white and dark bread loaves and challah.
On Wednesday, Economy Minister Orna Barbivai announced that unregulated bread will be raised by 20%, blaming the price rise on the global increase in the price of wheat and flour in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine. But reports on Thursday said that the price rise will be 36%.
Following the announcement on Wednesday, the CEO of Berman’s Bakery, Yitzchak Berman, told Yisrael Hayom that the price rate was vital, saying he would have been forced to lay off 1,000 of his employees if the prices didn’t go up.
Earlier this week, Israel’s largest bakery, Angel’s, informed retail stores that the price of its unregulated bread is rising by 8-12%.
The price of eggs rose by 6.5% last Friday and the price of milk and other dairy products are also rising. Regulated dairy products recently increased by 4.9%
It’s not just food products – the Israel Electric Corporation announced on Monday that the price of electricity will rise by at least 10% next month. The price of water has already risen and the price of gasoline has risen four times since January.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
Why, in the 21st century, does a supposedly modern and sensible country still regulate prices?
In Jerusalem: Cans of hummus have gone up 50%, eggs have gone up 6.5%. I paid $8.28 per gallon of gas (8.08 shekels per liter) this week. (In the Trump era, gas in Israel was $4.70 a gallon.)
Why is the government regulating ANY of these products such as milk, bread etc.??? Let the market operate and people pay the real prices which over time will provide accurate signals for entry of new suppliers who will not enter when prices are administratively suppressed. Electricity is a totally different matter as a natural monopoly but that only should apply to the wires portion of the business and the energy commodity (kwh) should be open to competitive marketers.
Israel, like most of the middle east, imports much of its grain from the Russia/Ukraine region. Currently the Russians and Ukrainians have things on their minds other than growing and selling wheat.