Producers, traders and citizens estimated the increase in cake prices this year by rates ranging between 7 and 20%, considering that with the increase in prices to this level, sales will decline with the decline in demand by consumers, and the trend towards other alternatives by adopting ingredients that are less expensive to manufacture.
Eid cake price increase by 10%
The candy division of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce estimated that the prices of Eid cakes and biscuits have risen by 7-10% this year.
Salah Al-Abed, head of the division for Sky News Arabia, considers the increase to be logical due to the high costs of manufacturing and its raw materials such as ghee, flour, and others, in addition to the costs of other services such as labor wages, shop rents, and others.
The head of the candy division at the Egyptian Cairo Chamber of Commerce added that sales may be affected this year by the rise in the prices of cakes and biscuits, which makes traders and manufacturers themselves facing the challenge of producing the amount expected to be sold by the end of the season without loss, expecting sales to decline relatively in light of this price increase. in products.
Prices start at an average of 90 pounds
The prices of cakes in Egypt range between 90 and 120 pounds on average, where the price of cakes starts from 90 pounds per kilo, as well as plain biscuits, in addition to nuts cakes, which reach between 100 and 120 pounds, and milk cakes at 100 pounds, and “petit fours” at 100 pounds per kilo. As well as orange biscuits, which are sold at 95 pounds per kilo, and may vary from region to region.
The head of the Sugar Division in the Chamber of Food Industries in the Federation of Egyptian Industries, Hassan El-Fandi, provides explanations for the rise in prices this year. He says that it is no secret to anyone that Egypt imports many ingredients needed for food production from abroad, primarily wheat, oils and sugar, which makes manufactured products more vulnerable. to fluctuations in the prices of these materials.
More important consumer priorities
Hassan Al-Fandi adds that the prices of chocolate candy increased this year by 20%, due to some reasons, including the increase in the prices of glucose, cocoa and cocoa butter substitutes, in these percentages, in addition to the high costs of packaging as well, noting that the increase in the final product is logical as long as it is Production inputs are high at this level.
The head of the Sugar Division in the Chamber of Food Industries in the Federation of Egyptian Industries concludes with his expectations that the supply of chocolate candy will decrease this year, whose sales are active during the New Year and Eid al-Fitr seasons, provided that with it the consumer demand on the part of citizens, whose consumer priorities may go towards other more important goods Currently.
And last January, the Egyptian Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade was forced to increase the prices of subsidized supply sugar in consumer complexes, which are being disbursed to those who are eligible for support from the most vulnerable groups, so that the price of a kilo became 10.5 Egyptian pounds instead of 8.5 last December, which was repeated in Last October, when oil prices increased from 21 pounds to 25 pounds, which she attributed to the high prices of sugar and oil globally, at a time when Egypt is still an importer of the two commodities.
Popular alternatives and solutions
In a village in the Damietta Governorate in northern Egypt, Fatima Abdel Wahed began preparations for preparing the plain and home-made stuffed cakes with her sisters and daughters, in one of the customs they practiced every year before the end of the blessed month of Ramadan: “We prepare cakes at home every year and give neighbors and relatives And we don’t buy in return… It’s more like a habit we inherited from my late mother.”
The forty housewife believes that homemade cakes are much better than others, especially by making them with natural ghee extracted from milk, unlike other types of vegetable and hydrogenated ghee that are of lower quality and more expensive.
She added that the rise in raw materials this year, such as sugar, flour, malban and nuts, significantly increases the cost, forcing her to replace nuts with less expensive peanuts, in addition to more cakes than others.
The prices of sweets increased this year during the Ramadan season, affected by the prices of ingredients and raw materials needed for manufacturing, especially flour, sugar, oils and ghee.
Inflation rates in Egypt reached a record level for the first time in 34 months in March, at 10.5% on an annual basis, according to what the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics revealed, as inflation rose to 12.1%, as a result of the increase in the prices of bread, meat, poultry, grains and fruits.
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