Subsidised bread: costs change tomorrow, you still pay 20 piastres
A new directive from the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade takes effect tomorrow, Tuesday 18 August, and it has already been misread across social media. Here is what it actually does, and what it does not do.
The price you pay for a subsidised baladi loaf is unchanged. It is still 20 piastres, drawn through your smart ration card, exactly as it was yesterday. Ministerial Directive No. 16 of 2026 sets what it costs bakeries to produce each loaf and therefore what the General Authority for Supply Commodities owes them. It is a settlement between the state and the bakery, not a new price at the counter. The ministry spokesman went on record on Monday specifically to say so, because claims that subsidised bread was becoming more expensive had begun circulating.
The figures underneath are these. At bakeries running on diesel, producing one soft baladi loaf now costs 38.11 piastres, of which you pay 20 and the Authority covers the remaining 18.11. A malladan loaf costs 43.08, and a magar loaf 36.95. At bakeries running on natural gas the production cost is far lower: 21.28 piastres for the soft loaf, 21.35 for malladan and 20.03 for magar, meaning your 20 piastres covers nearly the whole cost. The directive also fixes the social insurance contribution for bakery workers, at 0.75 piastres per soft and malladan loaf and 0.83 per magar loaf, which the Authority pays across to the National Social Insurance Authority on the bakery's behalf. The same rules extend to bread sold through armed forces and police bakeries on ration cards.
For a household the practical answer is that nothing changes at the bakery window tomorrow. Take your ration card as usual and pay what you always pay. If a bakery tells you the price has gone up, that is not what the directive says, and complaints can be raised with the local supply directorate.