Jimmy Manyi, corporate affairs executive at Tiger Brands, which owns the Albany brand, says, "You would have to be a fool to do that" (raise bread prices to help offset a recent R99m fine the company agreed to pay after admitting to competition authorities that it had been involved in bread and milling cartels). "People would see through that right away," he says. Well, those who got the company involved in price fixing and ripping off the poorest of the poor acted foolishly, so I suppose it's to be expected that the company feels no pain in raising the price of bread. Wouldn't it have been nice, however, if instead of raising the price, they had "independently" decided to give something back to the hard-pressed consumer who has been ripped off over the past years and is facing rising costs across the board. Food, fuel and anyone with a bond or goods bought on credit is paying more because the bank rate has been increased as well. Wouldn't it have been nice if they had said: "No price increase this year. In fact, we're dropping the price" But that is too much to expect. No wonder there are calls from politicians to regulate the price of bread.


Rod Baker, Content Manager