Gezim Kasapolli

Last week- the price and weight of the average loaf of bread dropped, indicating- what Millers in Kosovo say are difficult times ahead.

In most municipalities across Kosovo, bread now weighs less than the traditional standard 500 grams per loaf and Kosovo millers are blaming the fiscal policy in the region for the fluctuations in price.

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on air

Kosovo millers say the drop in the average weight of a loaf of bread and its price will not be the last surprise to consumers in the region and warn that bakers will be forced to raise the price of bread as soon as April.

Millers in Kosovo are demanding the removal of import taxes imposed on wheat and are also calling for the removal of the taxes placed on oil-fuel--necessary for importers of wheat.

Hamdi Muhadri, the president of Kosovo Millers Association, claims that lack of instituted laws to regulate import and also to reign in black market enterprises in Kosovo helped to prompt the latest change in bread weight:

Hamdi Muhadri: The price of bread went down for two reasons: first is the instability of wheat import and the second reason is the fact that for the moment there are many bakery shops that are not properly registered which work illegally. This may be the main reason for the instability of the price of bread.

Further problems arise, according to Muhadri, because there are some bakery shops, which avoid paying taxes to the state by not registering their business— helping to destabilize the current price and weight of bread in the region:

Hamdi Muhadri: I think that bakery shops that work and are not registered or notified as private enterprises are developing their business wildly. The mere fact of this destabilizes the price in the market. Professionally, we know that supply and demand determine the price however these bakery shops that do not pay their duties towards the state are likely to cause problems when it comes to determining the price of one product.

Ismet Krasniqi is the owner of the “Dona” bakery in Prishtina. Krasniqi denies allegations that bakeries are the main cause of price fluctuations in the region. Instead, Krasniqi says the price of ingredients, like flour, and the costs of producing bread determine market prices:

Ismet Krasniqi: The prices do not depend on bakers. The prices are dictated by the competition and price of flour. We in this bakery shop here have many other expenses, which have an impact in decreasing or increasing the price of bread. The main ones are electricity, public utilities, and taxes, which I know that many bakery shops do not pay and this creates a disloyal competition.

According to the Kosovo Millers Association, last September they appealed to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of Agriculture to remove the tax on wheat in order to stimulate local production.

Even as these taxes were removed, the government also removed taxes placed on import flour- making it more difficult for local producers to compete with import flour.

If the price of bread is expected to rise- as the Millers association predicts, consumers in Kosovo like Bajram- a customer in the Dona bakery- say it matters little:

Bajram: For us now everything is the same. It doesn’t matter anymore if prices go up or down. The cost of life is up in the sky. It became more expensive then in Germany or America. For us it doesn’t make a difference anymore.

Hamdi Muhadri of the Millers association calls on the government to help stabilize the price of bread. Relevant institutions should start to do their job and they should start imposing more strict rules and regulations when it comes to producing bread.

Hamdi Muhadri: in order to stabilize the price of bread in the market, the most important thing would be to control those who produce bread, that is for the inspection to do its job and to check were and how the bread is being produced, what are the conditions and is it being produced based on agreements and norms which are predicted, like weight and other norms. And second the price of flour has an impact on price of bread. If the price of flour is stabile this will contribute in stability of the price of bread.

On the other hand Jusuf Salihu, spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, says that the millers and bakers are the ones who adjust the price of bread and that the ministry had insisted earlier for the price of bread to go down.

Jusuf Salihu: we have warned them earlier to markdown the price of bread but that did not happen. Now they reacted just because of the competition in the market and when they saw that a category of bakers marked-down their prices, they started trying again to obstruct those bakers in order to increase the price of the bread.

As the price of basic goods, like bread go up and down, Kosovans are the ones who suffer the consequences of these changes.

The bakers warn that the price of bread will go up in April and that the ball is now in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Developments court.

And that’s all for today from UNMIK on air. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.