The price of Maltese bread will not be increased, after the government and the Bakers Cooperative reached an agreement yesterday.

The government will continue subsiding the production of flour used to produce Maltese loaves.

The Cabinet yesterday discussed a report recommending a subsidy rather than an increase in the price.

Sources from the Competitiveness and Communications Ministry told The Malta Independent after yesterday’s cabinet meeting that this subsidy “will be enough so that the price of Maltese bread will remain 19c for a large loaf and 11c for a small one”.

The sources stressed this subsidy applied only to Maltese bread and had nothing to do with the price of foreign-produced loaves. The sources would not disclose the value of the subsidy but insisted that it was enough to avoid a price increase.

Last week, the president of the Bakers’ Cooperative was quoted as saying that if the government did not accede to the bakers’ demands, then it would have to unilaterally increase the price of bread to 21c for a large loaf and 13c for a small one.