Sucheta Dalal :Pav prices in Mumbai may go up by 25 paise from Wednesday
Sucheta Dalal

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Pav prices in Mumbai may go up by 25 paise from Wednesday   

October 26, 2009

Mumbaikars have to pay 25 paise more for one pav (common man’s bread, often called as pav in local lingo) from Wednesday as most of the bakeries claim that the raw material prices have gone up drastically.

 

Wheat flour prices have shot up by Rs200 per quintal after the Assembly elections which were held in three states—Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, the bakers claimed.

 

Yazdani Bakery, one of the oldest bakeries in Mumbai famous for its brun-maska, said it will be increasing price of pav by 25 paise following the higher input cost.

 

The bakeries are annoyed by the price hike since government authorities had promised them that there won’t be further price increase in any raw material. But soon after the election results were out, the price of wheat flour, the main ingredient of many bakery products, shot up by Rs200 per quintal.

 

Interestingly, other food product manufacturers like biscuit-makers are not increasing their product prices. India’s largest selling biscuit Parle–G, which has kept its price fixed for over 15 years, will not increase the price although the raw material costs have increased, said a company official.

 

Pav is manufactured by the unorganised sector and is also a perishable commodity which is not in the case of biscuits. The margin on which I operate and produce glucose biscuits is very different from what they can manufacture because I produce huge volumes and (generate) economies of scale,” said Mayank Shah, group product manager, Parle Products Pvt Ltd.

 

Mehdi Dashti, proprietor of City Bakery, one of the oldest bakeries in Mumbai said, “I might increase the price by 25 paise in next two–three days if the price of raw material does not come down.”
–Pallabika Ganguly [email protected]


-- Sucheta Dalal