‘Generic’ bread products seen to increase demand for staple

Generic bread products such as the Pinoy Tasty and the recently launched Pinoy Pan de Sal are expected to boost demand for bread products, possibly helping the industry grow by at least 7 percent this year, as consumers are given cheaper alternatives to branded baked goods.

At the launch of the Pinoy Pan de Sal on Thursday, Philippine Baking Industry Group president Simplicio Umali Jr. said data from market research firm Nielsen showed the local bread industry growing at a pace of around 7 percent.

Initially, he said industry players had projected flat growth for the year. Sales, however, had consistently picked up over the past months.

“We believe the Pinoy Tasty contributed to that growth because of its low price,” he told reporters.

Pinoy Tasty currently sells for P38.50 a loaf, close to P10 cheaper than branded loaves.

Umali said the introduction of the Pinoy Pan de Sal, which was priced at P25 per 10-piece pack, was expected to further increase bread demand and do for the industry what the Pinoy Tasty did in terms of sales growth.

Since PhilBaking, the Filipino-Chinese Bakers Association Inc. (FCBAI) and the Philippine Federation of Bakeries Associations Inc. (PFBAI) started offering the Pinoy Tasty a year ago, the generic loaf bread was able to corner at least 10 percent of the loaf bread market, he said.

Umali said the share of Pinoy Tasty in the overall loaf bread market should have already increased to between 15 percent and 20 percent by now.

This prompted bakers to produce more Pinoy Tasty loaves: from an initial 400,000 loaves at the time it was launched to the current 600,000 loaves.

The Pinoy Pan de Sal should follow the same growth path, PhilBaking immediate past president Walter Co said.

Initial production of the Pinoy Pan de Sal was placed at 50,000 packs or 500,000 pieces of pan de sal.

The new generic pan de sal will hit supermarkets and selected bakeshops on October 11. It is a corporate social responsibility project of the three bakers’ associations behind the Pinoy Tasty, plus a number of community bakers.