Bread weight unchanged despite significant cut in flour prices

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Despite a significant decrease in flour prices, bakers are yet to increase the weight of bread in eastern Jalalabad city, residents say.

The residents urge the municipality to increase the weight of bread or decrease its price.

But Jalalabad municipality officials say they have prepared a new pricelist and distributed it to bread bakers and monitoring teams have been also tasked with implementing the new pricelist.

After the collapse of the previous government, flour prices went sky high in the country as a 49 kilogram bag of Qazaq four was sold for 2700 or 2800 afs and simultaneously the bakers decreased the weight of a bread to 120 grams.

According to a report of Pajhwok Afghan News, a 49 kilogram bag of flour is sold for 1650 afs these days.

The citizens of Jalalabad emphasis that after the drastic fall in flour prices, the weight of bread must be increased.

Sayed Karimullah, a resident of Jalalabad city, told Pajhwok the price of a bag of flour had decreased from 3,000 afs to 1650 afs, but the weight of bread remained 120 grams.

He asked the municipality of Jalalabad City to either to decrease the price of bread or increase the weight of bread.

Mohammad NasirMalikzai, a resident of ‘Roshan Mina’ area of Jalalabad city, said bread bakers should must increase the weight of bread in line with the decrease in flour prices.

He said: “The bakeries must be controlled because I think the weight of each loaf of bread remains 120 grams as it was in the past”.

Other residents of Jalalabad city expressed similar views and asked the municipality to adopt tough stance about the issue.

But bakeries’ owners say they have increased the bread weight.

Haji Kabir, owner of a bakery in Jalalabad city, said he had been selling reduced weight bread in line with municipality’s pricelist in the past and was committed to the new price list and weight.

According to him, in the past a bread weighed 120 grams, but now the weight has been increased to 165 grams.

Bakhti Jan Murad, the spokesman of the municipality, told Pajhwok the weight of each bread was fixed 165 grams.

He said: “The weight of bread has been fixed 165 grams and the teams of the municipality are already in the city to implement the new pricelist”.

A significant decrease has been recorded in the prices of flour, oil and other food and fuel items in the markets of Jalalabad city.

aw/ma