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Baker Says New Price Does Not Go Down Like A Spoonful of Sugar
posted (January 6, 2016)

Last night you heard from two pastry makers in the city who say the 50% increase in the price of sugar won't affect them at all. But today the owner of Casa Pan Dulce with branches in San Pedro, Santa Elena and Belmopan told us that's not the case for him at all. Owner Andre Perez told us via telephone from San Pedro that with this increase he has no other choice but to raise his prices.

Andre Perez - Owner, Casa Pan Dulce Bakery

"Obviously it's not the same with me because of the amount of consumption I do. Especially white sugar is a key component in my bakery and I've been doing those figures since they announced the increase of white sugar and that definitely curves in knocks out on the operating cost for me for the year 2016 and I have the figures here to show you as proof. We're talking about an increase of 30 dollars and 30 cents to be more or less precise on the increase in the sack of white sugar. I am one of those bakeries that are consuming approximately something between 90 to 100 sacks monthly for consumption. If you do the math on that figure it is approximately 2,800 dollars more or less increase in my cost, the cost of goods. That's only for the month of January that I am telling you and if you would multiply that by 12 months, we're talking some big figures already and that might be some small figures to somebody but for me it's huge. We're talking in excess of over almost 33,000 dollars increase in cost for the year 2016 alone and that's a lot of money. There is one to make your product and not knowing what is your cost, I don't know what type of business you are into and myself being a baker, I have a bakery yes but I have to factor in my cost and everything. That's the first thing you should do when you do business, you need to figure out cost and any price increase you need to take into consideration, especially when you're talking about a product that has a dramatic increase of almost 50% increase of price, more than 50%."

Courtney Weatherburne

"Sir looking at those figures, how will you manage this increase now or this cost?"

Andre Perez - Owner, Casa Pan Dulce Bakery

"Let me tell you something, I'm voicing my concern because I have been discussing it any social circle that I speak and have been telling them how nobody is saying anything. I am just responding to what I saw on the news yesterday which was absolutely unjustified. You're saying the bakeries are quite happy with the increase we have now. I am saying for myself, I'm speaking for Casa Pandulce bakery that for sure this is a big blow for me right here. So you're asking me what do I do. We have to look at our options, this is something that we don't like doing but this is something we have to consider. We have no other choice but to pass that to the consumer."

Perez told us that he uses 90 sacks of sugar per month and now he will have to pay $30.34 more for one sack. At that rate - as you heard in the interview - it will cost Perez about $33,000 more every year to run his bakeries.

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