No Respite For Consumers As Bakers Groan Under Production Costs
Bread as a staple food is prepared from dough of flour, water and other ingredients, usually by baking. Historically, it has been recorded around the world as one of the oldest staple food, having been of importance since the dawn of agriculture.
Bread is served in various forms with any meal of the day. It is eaten as a snack, and used as an ingredient in other culinary preparations, such as sandwiches, and fried items coated in bread crumbs to prevent sticking. It is also used to complement other meals such as Bean cake (Akara), pap and cooked beans. Bread can also be eaten while drinking tea or beverages, particularly at breakfast.
Surprisingly, apart from its culinary relevance to many families, bread has a social and emotional significance that it has played essential roles in religious rituals and secular culture. Its prominence in daily life finds expression in language, where it appears in proverbs and colloquial expressions. For instance, it is not uncommon to hear people proverbially say, “He stole the bread from my mouth”, especially when they are deprived of their means of livelihood. In the Christendom, it is not rare to hear a worshiper pray by saying, “Give us this day our daily bread”.
It would be recalled that several factors were fingered to be responsible for the French revolution. They cut across intertwining factors that were of cultural, social, financial, political and economic dimensions. Surprisingly, the most resounding of the intertwining factors is that the deregulation of the grain market, advocated by liberal economists, resulted in an increase in bread prices. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to scarcity of food, which would prompt the masses to revolt.
In addition to other factors, scarcity of bread at the time coupled with the attendant exorbitant prices they were sold created a revolutionary atmosphere and a tricky situation for Louis XVI. In order to resolve the crisis, the king summoned the Estates-General in May 1789 and, as it came to an impasse, the representatives of the Third Estates formed a National Assembly, against the wishes of the king, signalling the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Be that as it may,since 2016 when Nigerian bakers increased the price of bread on account of the high cost of flour, sugar and other ingredients as a result of the foreign exchange crisis, consumers of bread in the country have been paying more for the product that is highly regarded as a staple food.
Presently in most parts of Lagos, and neighbouring states, a medium loaf of bread that was sold at N150 now sells for N220 and above. In some cases, some brands are sold at N300. Ostensibly to make bread affordable, bakers have reduced the sizes of smaller loaves that were once sold at N100, and at such pegged the price of the reduced size at N50.
As it is, not a few bread consumers are finding it economically convenient to include bread in their menu, as they were wont to do.
Against the foregoing backdrop, INDEPENDENT visited some few bakeries in Lagos to know the reason why the prices of bread of various sizes and brands are by each passing day aiming at the roof beyond the reach of consumers. The visits to bakery was purposely embarked upon in order to hear from the bakers who have direct knowledge of why the price of bread is by each passing day becoming unaffordable despite the fact that some brands are becoming smaller in sizes.
Mr. Onovwerosuimo Ted, manager, Guca Dove Bakery, Surulere, Lagos said doing business as a baker has not been easy and profitable in the recent times as virtually all ingredients needed for production are by each passing day becoming costlier. He said “Apart from the ingredients that are used to manufacture bread, other inputs like power, water, vehicles, diesel are equally becoming expensive. Besides, workers are asking for more salaries as a result of the prevailing economic recession.” He added that the ingredients that are required for the production of bread cut across sugar, salt, flour, yeast, margarine and Edc.
He noted that in the bid to meet the standard set by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), that the EDC used in the bakery meets the standard approved by the regulatory agency approved.
It would be recalled that NAFDAC in 2015 stepped up action in many parts of the country on bread safety through its Bread Quality Initiative. The agency then embarked on the quality drive as a way of bringing to bear acceptable sanity, standards, as well as hygienic and good manufacturing practices in its production in hundreds of bakeries across the country.
NAFDAC then approved some brands of EDC that were considered to be safe. Moreover, the agency through intensive research, came up with healthier and internationally acceptable baking inputs for use in production. They include Morphan 500 of Morrison Industries PLC; EDC 95 Dough of Edlen International Incorporated USA; EDC 2000 (an improvement on EDC Dough Oxidant) of the same firm; Bake Rite of Chellarams PLC; and Puratos S500( blue bread improver) of Purators W-V/SA Industraialaan Belgium. Others are Painforce concentrated bread improver of Ducros SS84200 France; Vahiforce of the same firm; and ALL GREEN bread improver of Florum Limited, Israel.
Onovwerosuimo said to meet the standard requires spending monies, and said after embarking on such spending in order to meet set standard in the industry that making profits had been tough as consumers are on their own part finding it difficult to pay, and that they are always complaining that prices of various sizes and brands of bread are costly. He said marketing strategy that involves reducing the grams or quantity breads have equally not helped matter as good investment returns were not being experienced.
Ostensibly corroborating Onovwerosuimo, another baker at Ikosi, Ketu, also in Lagos, who simply identified himself as Abbey said the price of ingredients that cut across flour, sugar, salt and water are unbearably becoming expensive. He said the wholesalers who are not making good sales to retailers are in turn transferring the burden to the bakery as they are regularly given credit facilities which they often find difficult to service. He said, “Since people are not buying bread as a result of increasing price, things that are happening in the market are not unexpected.” He called on the government to intervene in whichever way it could as escalating cost of production is making price of bread to rise uncontrollably. Ostensibly indicating that bakers were helpless on the situation if government fails to review some policies toward engendering an enabling environment for bakeries, he said, “Our hands are tied, there is no way the price of bread can be reduced in the face of increasing costs of production.”
It would be recalled that Prince Jacob Adejorin, the South-West Vice Chairman, of the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, the South-West Vice Chairman, explained to Journalists on July 6, 2017, Thursday, that the refusal of millers to reduce price of flour in spite of reduction in the price of raw materials was the main reason why the price of bread has continued to rise beyond the reach of the majority of the people.
A year down the line since Adejorin adduced millers’ refusal to reduce price of flour as the cause of the spiralling price of bread, the millers somewhat are still intransigent to the detriment to bread consumers in many homes across the country.
Adejorin, who is also the Chairman, Lagos State Chapter of the association, then said his members met with the flour millers several times to reduce the price, but to no avail. According to him, the appeal to the flour millers for price reduction is due to the fact that price of wheat at the international market has dropped.
He said at the time, “Besides, naira has appreciated against the dollar and the price of diesel has fallen drastically from N250 per litre to N170 across the country. “We bakers cannot continue to buy a bag of flour at N11, 300 which was the price fixed when the naira was exchanged at N500 to a dollar.
“We proposed a reduced price range of between N9, 500 and N10, 000 per bag, but the millers declined the proposal.
“Out of the five flour mills in the country, only one mill accepted our plea and is selling to us at N10, 600 per bag, which is commendable.
“The stance of other flour mills is that reduction in price will only happen when naira/dollar exchange rate is N300. We do not know when that will occur.
“We cannot continue to bear the financial burden of high cost of production, dearth of bakeries and lack of profit as most bakers are currently living from hand to mouth.”
He appealed to the Federal Government to intervene in the impasse before it escalates and threatens the nation’s food industry and security.
He said that members of the association across the country might down tools should the flour millers refused to change their stance.
Adejorin said that millers had failed to recognise the vital role and contributions of bakers to the food industry.
In one of the campaign efforts when the naira was literarily caught in the web of devaluation, Adejorin advised millers to adjust the price of flour to reflect the present exchange rate of the naira to the dollar as well as the slash in the price of diesel by the Federal Government across the country.
He then argued that, “We still buy a bag of flour for between N11,000 and N11,300. This was the price when the naira was being exchanged at N500 to the dollar.
He continued, “Now that the naira has appreciated against the dollar at N363 to the dollar, we expect that flour millers should have reduced the price of a bag of flour from its present price.
He added, “The prices of other raw materials, such as sugar, salt, margarine, edible oil and yeast have been reduced in the market, and that “The high cost of flour has negatively impacted on the productivity and profitability of bread.
Then, he noted that reduction in the price of flour would also be able to provide affordable and nutritious flour-based -food varieties for Nigerians.
Comments are closed.