People to eat Istanbul bread for higher price

ISTANBUL

Raw material prices’ rise has brought the hike, bakers said. AA photo

The price of 250 grams of bread in Istanbul, which used to be 85 kuruş, has been increased to 1 Turkish lira.

The reason for the hike is the increasing cost of flour, yeast, fuel and natural gas, according to the Istanbul Chamber of Bakers, which said that flour and yeast prices had soared by 25 percent in the last year, making the hike unavoidable.

Effective since yesterday, a 250 gram bread is now sold for 1 lira, while there will be 15 kuruş-rises in the prices of 300 and 350 gram bread loaves, according to the new regulation.

White bread, which is an essential element of the Turkish diet, has been occupying the agenda for a while. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan started a campaign against the wasting of bread in the country last month, hinting at regulations that could alter the amount as well as the ingredients of consumption-ready bread.

Last week, the Bread Industry Employers Union has kicked off another discussion, saying they had begun a “bring your stale bread, get a fresh one” campaign. The move aroused reactions from the Istanbul Bakers Union, which says such a campaign would double bread wastage.

Turkish women normally recycle stale bread by baking it or using it in meatballs or soups, but if they can recycle the old bread with a new one it would result in more wastage, which is contrary to the will of the prime minister, Fahri Özer, the head of the union said.