""Hashta Bnei Horin - this year you will be able to bake matzahs by hand in your yard, without hassle or effort." Many ads along these lines or similar ones were published in the Haredi press last month of Shevat.
The result: The market was flooded with several companies with small ovens for baking handmade matzot, powered by gas, and these became a hit for synagogues and communities that organize handmade matzot baking.
But that's not all: this year, several new bakeries were established in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem and Ashdod - which led to a decrease in matzo prices. In addition, several Hasidim established bakeries in their study halls this year for the Hasidim community, which sell matzo at a reasonable price.
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All of this has caused the prestigious bakeries to start lowering prices. Although prices are still very expensive, the veteran bakeries - Afikoman, Eirnstein, Weinberg, Ludmir, Kfar Chabad, Beit Israel, Wekselstein, Mishmeret HaMatzot - have started to lower prices, due to the very large quantity of matzo remaining in warehouses and with marketers.
And these are the prices:
A kilogram of handmade matzah, hand-milled - last year, a few days before Passover, the price was 210 shekels. Currently, the price is: 195 shekels.
A kilogram of handmade matzah, milled by a machine - last year, a few days before Passover, the price was 180 shekels. Currently, it is being sold for 140 shekels.
You can purchase 3 matzahs for the Seder night, machine-milled, sold in an impressive package, for 35 shekels instead of 50 last year.
By the way, extra-thin matzah, called 'Citrine', are sold for about 500 shekels per kilogram. Half a Citrine - 280 shekels per kilogram. The matzah is extra-thin, crispy and delicious.
Of course, the price for a large quantity varies completely.
The price list is for matzos certified by the Haredi Eda, the kosher certification of the leading bakeries in the country.
The competition is mainly for the Hasidic consumer audience, because the Sephardic and Lithuanian audiences mainly consume machine-made matzah, and hand-baked matzah is baked privately in "groups.".
It should be noted that the price reduction is only now being felt in the bakeries themselves, but not in stores and grocery stores - where the price has not changed.
