Bakers have had it their way for too long

I have been wanting to write to you for a long time with this idea, but somehow it never came to the top of my priorities. The news that yet again the price of bread, both Maltese and fancy, was to rise, was the catalyst I needed.

At least ever since bread was taken off the rationing system and the price started edging towards real commercial levels, Maltese consumers have never got their due from bakers. It is high time they did.

I can still remember the years when a loaf of bread was officially supposed to weigh 800 grams (hobza ta' ratal). I write "officially" because not even a superbaker can get the weight of a loaf exactly right at 800 g every time, thousands of times a day.

But while it is safe to wager that there has never been an overweight loaf made by any baker, it is just as safe to charge that the underweight in loaves was not the result of an occasional marginal human error but a perennial, calculated one.

Bakers' representatives admitted a few years ago that they were using subsidised flour, intended for Maltese bread, to make fancy bread. That was the time when the government timidly gave in and allowed the self-confessed erring bakers not only to raise the price yet again (and get back on the right track), but to give them the leeway that the 800 g hobza ta' ratal could go down to 600 g (tliet kwarti)!

This time we have not been given a weight to refer the 16c to - just a "large loaf".

I am sure thousands of Maltese consumers will be with me when I exhort the Customer Services Column of The Sunday Times to start one of its very effective campaigns for Maltese bread (for a start) to be charged by weight. And I fully expect - by right - the Department for Consumer Affairs, the Office for Fair Competition and the Malta Consumers Association to lend their full and unqualified support.

For several years now super-markets and even smaller shops have come to use digital scales, especially for their delicatessen and sweet departments. Now bakers should be forced to install such digital scales and the consumer should be given the right to insist on his loaf of bread to be weighed and charged to the nearest cent. We should pay for what we get - no more, no less.

The digital scales should be standard not only in bakeries but also in bakers' vans. The question of electricity for their operation does not and should not arise; again, for years now street hawkers, especially greengrocers, have had lights and VAT cash registers in their vans, so there should be no problem about having digital scales.

It is important that the Customer Service Column conduct this campaign with the same enthusiasm it has run others with the desired results, notably the printing of expiry dates on milk cartons and the removal of personal details from vehicles' windscreen licences. But other columns in other newspapers should take it up as well, in the interests of their own readers.

Most importantly, the consumer must be made to realise that such a campaign would be in his favour. There should be no crisis of neighbourliness or friendship about asking for bread to be weighed, just like a good number of customers are still loathe to ask for their fiscal receipts from merchants who do not give them.

Let's stand up for our due, this time on the weight and price of Maltese bread. (Laurence Vella).

I asked the Consumers' Association president for his comments on this issue:

We had written to the Director-General, Consumer and Competition Division, and suggested that:

He should inform the public of the reasons which led him to approve such an increase, especially since consumers had been complaining that the bakers were not keeping to the weights as specified at law;

He should use the Division's Market Surveillance Unit to ensure that the loaves are within the weights specified. We also asked the director to inform the public of such investigations.

We would appreciate if consumers would put pressure so that the structures that had been set up to ensure consumers get a fair deal, would function effectively.

Consumers noting any abuse should contact us so that we would follow the matter up. (Benny Borg Bonello, president, Consumers' Association)

I also asked for the Consumer and Competition Director-General's comments on this issue:

I refer to the recent increase in the price of Maltese-type bread. The increase in the price of bread was attributable to the following factors:

An increase in the flour distributors' fees, which last increased in 1992;

An increase in the bakers' production costs. The last increase was granted in 2000; and

The cost of additives to obtain greater quality consistency in flour for the production of Maltese-type bread.

It must be pointed out that the order regulating the price of Maltese-type bread was issued by the Director-General (Commerce) under the Supplies and Services Act. This price order specifies two different prices, i.e. 16c for loaves weighing 600 g (plus or minus 10 per cent) and 10c for loaves weighing 300 g (plus or minus 10 per cent).

This effectively means that what is commonly known as the large loaf can vary from 660 g to 540 g while what is commonly known as the small loaf can vary from 330 g to 270 g. The Consumer and Competition Division will be monitoring the market and consumers are invited to contact our freephone 120 should they feel that they are being given bread which is below the weight stipulated in the above-mentioned price order. Such complaints will be referred to the recently set up Metrology Office within the Malta Standards Authority which is being given the responsibility in such matters. (Marcel Pizzuto)

I thank Mr Borg Bonello and Mr Pizzuto for their comments. There isn't much space left for me so I will just advise you to follow their advice. Contact them if you have any problems and inform me too so that we can share the information with fellow consumers.