Local residents, bread maker feel pinch as cost of basics rises

Senad Sabanovic has seen the price of flour more than double over the past year.

And when prices go up for his bakery, they go up for his customers. Sabanovic, production manager for HearthBread BakeHouse in Spokane, has a front-row seat on one key component of the rising food prices – the steady increase in bread and cereal prices over last year and so far in 2008.

“And I don’t think it’s stopping yet,” Sabanovic said.

February’s food prices were 4.6 percent higher than a year ago – the biggest jump since 1990, according to the latest U.S. Consumer Price Index. Certain staple foods skyrocketed in 2007: eggs jumped 29 percent, dairy products rose 7.4 percent, poultry went up 5.2 percent. Cereals and bakery products rose 4.4 percent last year, and are projected to rise by as much as 6.5 percent this year, according to federal estimates.

Shoppers in Spokane weren’t surprised to hear it.

“Gas prices went up and up and up since last summer, and the food is not cheap anymore,” said Yuko Honda, who was preparing to buy groceries at Super 1 Foods on Spokane’s South Hill Monday.

Honda moved to Spokane from Japan last August and said she’s noticed the steady increases in cereals and produce. “I try to find the cheapest places, and I definitely look at the fliers and advertisements,” she said.

Denisa Buljubasic, 16, said she often shops with or for her mom.

“One thing my mom always mentions is flour and oil, because she buys a lot of that stuff for baking,” she said.

Higher food prices hit low-income residents hardest, because they spend a greater portion of their overall income on groceries.

Rod Wieber, director of donations and community relations for the Second Harvest Food Bank, said prices have a direct impact on the food bank’s clients – on how much they can buy themselves and how much they’ll need from the food bank.

Sabanovic, whose bakery makes high-end loaves sold in area grocery stores, said HearthBread sales haven’t been hurt by the rising prices yet. He said the company raised its prices about 16 percent to accommodate the rising flour prices.

“It’s as high as it’s been,” he said. “We haven’t had these big jumps in such a short time before.”