Ukraine faces bread shortage: bakers demand price increases.

Ukraine faces a bread shortage due to the rapid increase in the cost of flour and other production components. This is being warned by representatives of the baking industry.

The President of the All-Ukrainian Bakers Association and the director of the company "Kyivkhlib," Yuriy Duchenko, reports that flour prices have increased by 50% over the past few months. According to the expert, if in April a ton of flour cost 10,000 UAH, now the price reaches 15,000 UAH and further growth to 16-16.2 thousand UAH per ton is expected by November.

Flour makes up about 40% of the cost of bread. In addition, production components such as sugar and oil have risen by more than 20% since the beginning of the year. Profitability of enterprises is also decreasing due to rising costs for electricity, logistics, and packaging materials.

According to Duchenko, if bread prices are not increased by 15-20%, many bakeries may be forced to close their doors, leading to a shortage of bread in the country. Some enterprises are already operating on the edge of profitability or have switched to single-shift work.

The reason for the increase in flour prices is the limited supply of second-grade grain on the domestic market, which is used for the production of bakery flour. Many sellers are holding back grain, waiting for a more favorable price.

Already, bread prices have started to rise. The average price for wheat bread (650 g slice) has increased from 34.21 UAH to 34.45 UAH. The price for "Tsar Bread" (600 g slice) has also increased from 30.50 to 30.76 UAH.

Bread producers cannot raise prices proportionally to the rise in costs due to regulatory restrictions and the social significance of the product, putting enterprises in a difficult financial position and potentially having negative consequences for the country's food security.