The largest bakery of Moldova “Franzeluța” increased prices as a result of the rise in natural gas rates that generated subsequent price rises, including of raw material. If bread prices hadn’t been raised, the company towards the end of the year would have sustained losses of over 73 million lei, “Franzeluța” acting director general Victor Matcov stated in the meeting of the Parliament’s committee on economy, budget and finance. He noted that the higher prices applied as from February 3 enabled to diminish the losses and to work out a financial plan for this year, with a profit of 2.8 million lei, IPN reports.
Victor Matcov said the bakery last November suffered losses of over 5 million lei, in Decembrist – of over 3 million lei. Initially, it was decided to increase the prices of biscuits, cakes and pretzels, except bread. But the losses could not be covered given that the bread and other baked goods represent 85% of the production of “Franzeluța”. “We proposed increasing the price of bread as we could not identify other solutions. If the state had provided 10,000 tonnes of wheat (50 million lei) in assistance, we could have maintained the old prices,” stated the acting director general.
According to him, the price of flour increased significantly. The price of flour of the highest quality grew from 5.90 lei to 7.00 lei/kg. If electricity rates are raised, flour suppliers will be unable to keep the price of 7.00 lei/kg and a new wave of price rises will be provoked.
The company increased production of social bread. The cost price is 7.2 lei per loaf of such bread, but this is sold for 3 lei. The profitability is of minus 64.8%. If the production volume is maintained this year, the bakery will sustain losses of 4.3 million lei. “We earlier produced 1.3 tonnes of social bread a day, but now increased the volume to 2 tonnes. The social bread is sold in the own shop chain. Earlier, it was bought very swiftly, but now can be found in shops after 10am and after midday too. So, the demand is satisfied,” said Victor Matcov.
