Price for "social bread" grows every month

Sellers of the shop "Azarennie" remind Euroradio about the list of socially important goods, the prices for which are regulated by the state.

"Dairy products, bread - these are social food products, bakery's not, cottage cheese is considered a socially important products, while chocolate glazed curd bars are not, as a person can survive without them, pasteurized sterilized milk is also not a social product," - says the accountant of the "Azarennie" shop. 

So, I ask about the prices for the social products and it turns out that bread-milk get more and more expensive practically every month!

"Prices for bread grow every month, either in the beginning or in the end. For example, the bread "Traecki" - it was Br 4900 in May, and now it is Br 5200, vodka "Stolgradnaya" 0,5 was Br 47300 in March, and now it became even cheaper - Br 46650! Sometimes it's the supplier who defines the price, but here we have the same supplier, and vodka still became cheaper," the accountant is surprised. We checked the prices for other non-social goods together with her. 

The uncooked smoked sausage "Kremlyovskaya" was Br 79650 in May, and 3 months later it got Br 750 more expensive, which is 0,9%. Bread became 6% more expensive in these 3 months.

The prices for dairy products grew by 18% in comparison with the last year, for uncooked smoked sausage - by 11%. Early potatoes - which is probably the product number 1 with regard to social importance for Belarusians - was Br 3500 last year, and Br 7000 now. The price increased by half!

I ask Economy Minister Mikalaj Snapkou why the prices for socially important food products grow every month, while the prices for non-social products grow not so fast. He answers that the price growth for the social bread is the plan of the Ministry of Economy aimed at increase of reasonability of its production. 

"We slowly leave the regulated positions in the price forming structures behind. This is happening in accordance to the plan and the aim, we want to take this bread, which occupies the lowest price segment, to the level of production price. We didn't raise the price for bread all at one moment, we decided to do it gradually, depending on the growth of the population's incomes."

Still, the Minister didn't say how much the price for the social bread should be. "I can't say the exact price. Bread should be both profitable and buyable."

It turns out that bread, like other socially important goods, is at least non-profitable, but it's not very important. According to the Economy Minister, the list of socially important food products will be narrowed gradually. However, the Minister doesn't know yet which products will be crossed out the list already in the following year - the Ministry of Economy has no such plans at the moment.