Lapid instructs Treasury officials to propose solutions to bread price hike

Prime Minister Lapid says he has instructed Treasury officials to provide immediate proposals on stopping the price hikes for subsidized bread.

Lapid says he wants a complete halt to the price rise and has given officials three days to submit their proposals.

On Friday supermarket giants agreed to freeze the price hike on bread, following a request by Economy Minister Orna Barbivai for a reprieve.

Bread products with supervised, or limited, prices include sliced and unsliced white and dark loaves, as well as challah. The expected 20% price rise, which would have increased the cost of the common dark loaf bread from NIS 7.11 (approximately $2) to NIS 8.54 ($2.45), was set to go into effect today.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the rise in bread price is a result of a global food crisis linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is a major exporter of wheat.

Subsidized bread (Noam Moskowitz/Flash 90)