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Tuesday,
July 31,
2007, #144 (1411) In the last week, the price of bread in the country went up 5.2 percent, according to Statistics Department data. White bread now costs GEL 0.55-0.60 instead of GEL 0.50, with other breads also costing more. There's a shortage of wheat on the world market, explained the Ministry of Agriculture. Poor harvests in major wheat producing countries have pushed up prices to USD 280 for a ton of wheat, reports the news agency Regnum. Georgia is actually expecting a better than average wheat harvest this year, but domestic production won't match more than 25 percent of local demand. Georgia imports most of its wheat from Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the US. Some flour is imported from Turkey. Flour costs began climbing upwards months ago, but bakeries made lighter breads to keep retail prices stable. Statistics Department data shows wheat as the fifth most imported good to Georgia in the first five months of 2007, with purchases amounting to USD 42.8 million. In the same period last year, USD 30.3 million worth of wheat was imported.
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Bread prices
up after poor global wheat harvest