March 18 2003, 10:18 UNIAN

Bread prices in Ukraine may rise 20 pc

"If the issue of supplying Zaporozhye region with grain is not solved till the end of March, since April the bread bakers will have to raise bread prices by at least 20 percent", President of Zaporozye regional association of bread bakers Yuri Chekals'ky has told UNIAN news agency today.

He said the cause of the problem was grain deficit in Ukraine.

Despite multitudinous declarations of officials that last year crop grain would be enough to supply bread baking industry till the 2003 crop, the industry is already suffering from grain shortage. "This resulted in a 25 percent growth of flour prices over the last few weeks, with the price reaching 800 hryvnias per tonne now", Chekalsky said. (5.36 hryvnias = $1)

He said that the same situation was in virtually all regions of Ukraine.

He said that managers of bread baking plants were now trying to find suppliers of grain from outside Ukraine - in Russia and Kazakhstan. But the only reliable way to avoid increase of bread prices in the country is allocation of grain from the state reserve.