THE National Milling of Guyana Incorporated (Namilco) has announced a six percent across the board increase in the price of flour, with effect from September 21, 2012.

A release from Namilco yesterday attributed the increase to the severe drought in the United States and other parts of the world, together with increasing demands for food worldwide. This has led to the price of grains, including wheat, escalating over the past few months.
Last week the Jamaican flour mills announced an increase of 10-14 percent and other mills in the Caribbean have already increased prices.
Namilco has so far refrained from increasing the price for flour with the hope that these increases were temporary. The last increase was in March 2011.
However, Namilco has been buying wheat at higher prices and can no longer afford to hold prices steady.
“We have had discussions with the acting Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce on this issue and requested a 12 percent increase. At his request, we have agreed to a six percent across the board increase, with effect from September 21, 2012,” the Namilco release said.
“Our flour still remains one of the cheapest in the Caribbean despite the high cost of power.
“We want to assure consumers that increases are taking place worldwide and we will monitor the situation with the expectation that wheat prices and consequently flour prices will decline in the future,” Namilco said.