Sun is released, not bread

This is more convenient for him, for the price of flour has been released.

From 16 euros I bought a couple of months ago, I now buy 25 kilos of flour at 13.50 euros”, Feridja tells Radio Free Europe.

“Buka in the town of Fushe Kosovo costs between 50 and 60 cents. This price is expensive, as we consume four loaves a day, costing 2 euros. For 60 euros a month, I have an account to cook because I don't work”, she says.

Agim Maloku, who works at a private company in Pristina and pays 250 euros a month, says his 3-member family buys bread.

The price of bread must be changed because it has to go in proportion to flour”, he says.

The price of a 500m bread in most of Kosovo's cities has remained 50 cents since July last year, when it has grown from 40 cents to that time, while the price of flour is declining.

Kosovo has faced rising prices of products and services since the end of 2021, mainly due to supply disorders that have caused the pandemic and the coronary. Hoov, then, has been given the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in late February 2022.

Both Russia and Ukraine are among the largest exporters of cereals in the world, and their struggle has caused market disorders.

Why has the price of bread not fallen?

The owner of the oven “Dea” in Prizren, Elvis Calander, tells Radio Free Europe that the price of bread has remained unchanged, because he has not yet bought cheaper flour.

He says that even after buying new amounts of flour, the decrease in the price of bread will be difficult because of the expensive electricity bills and the increase in workers ' wages, he says.

Currently, seven workers work in its oven, and their salary is conducted from 500 to 1,000 euros.

I don't know how to cut prices, how to pay the workers, the electricity bills... This exacerbates the business budget”, Calander says.

Radio Free Europe also visited several bread ovens in Pristina, but their owners refused to talk about the reasons for the freedom of the price of bread and other products from flour.

From the Kosovo Mills Association confirm for REL that price
The flour is in decline.

Its chairman, Bashkim Zejnullahu, simultaneously owner of the flour factory “Thesari”, says that from 52 euros as much as costing 100kg of flour at the beginning of the year, they are currently bought at 40 to 44 euros.

The world's “Trades have influenced the price reduction, the opening of the Ukrainian market has made it its own. After the price of wheat has been released, we have been forced to release flour”, Zejnullahu says.

What do economic experts say?

At the moment the first item is released, businesses should also reflect on the final product, says Makroeconomics and Environment Professor at the University of Pristina, Nagip Skyeri.

We have a drop in oil prices, oil derivatives, wheat, flour... but, from the market aspect, we don't have any fluctuations in this context. Perhaps, in certain cases, we also have price hikes, as they [businesses] are taking the price of electricity as a pretext, and that percentage of growth is reflecting on the price of bread”, says Svanter for Radio Free Europe.

By the beginning of this month, new electricity bills have been introduced in Kosovo for 15 percent more expensive.

Skyer, however, says it is not fair that the price of bread does not fall, and urges responsible authorities to inspect the market and take measures.

“We have an abusive inflation on the part of other bakers and breadmakers. All of this is happening in front of the Competition Authority and Market Inspectorate”, he says.

Free Europe Radio contacted the Ministry of Industry, Intervention and Trade on the issue, but received no answers.

From the Competition Authority, said they have conducted monitors in several areas of Kosovo, the most contestants have found that there are different prices of bread, depending on the oven, market in neighbourhoods and shopping centres.

For the possibility of misuse of prices or any eventual agreement between breadmakers, this authority said of The REL is expected to inspect the market and if it finds irregularities, “will react according to official duty”. Other details did not.

Kosovo cannot meet the needs of the population with flour and wheat, so it imports amounts that reach the value of millions of euros mostly from neighbouring countries.

Last year, Kosovo has closed at the average inflation rate of nearly 12 per cent. The Kosovo Central Bank has warned that the decline in inflation will be seen in the second half of the year.