Lockdown: Bakers attribute rise in price of bread to high cost of production

Bakers on Monday attributed the increase in the price of bread in Lagos to rising cost of production due to hoarding of the ingredients by retail outlets.

They told our reporter in separate interviews that due to the lockdown most retail outlets had resorted to hoarding of baking ingredients to make profit.

Prince Jacob Adejorin, Immediate Past Chairman, Lagos Chapter, Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, told our reporter that baking ingredients such as flour and sugar had become difficult to access, leading to high costs of the items.

According to Adejorin, a bag of flour, which before the lockdown, cost N10, 200 now goes for N11, 500 while a bag of sugar now sells for N22, 000 as against N13, 500 before the lockdown.

He said the increase in the price of bread was not official and expressed hope that the price might return to normal after the pandemic.

A survey by our reporter shows that a loaf of bread, which cost N350 before the lockdown now costs between N400 and N450 depending on location, while the N200 loaf now sells for between N220 and N250.

Adejorin said, “There has been no official increase in the price of bread; it is just that due to the lockdown, there has been difficulty in accessing the ingredients.

“This has led to the increase in the price of bread. For now, bakers are producing at a loss. After the lockdown, if the situation remains, we can then officially visit the issue of pricing.”

Adejorin appealed to the government to give palliatives to bakers to minimise the effect of the lockdown on their businesses.

Besides, Mr Chukwudi Nwali, Managing Director, Brown Baking Empire, said the price of bread rose due to the soaring prices of printing nylon, butter and other baking ingredients.

Nwali explained that apart from flour and sugar, the price of butter had risen from N7, 000 to N9, 000; while nylon, which was printed at N1, 500 per kilogramme now costs N1, 800 per kilogramme.

“By the time you put all the additional costs together, including paying workers, we cannot avoid the increment.

“We are in a big problem and if the price continues to increase as it is, many would go out of production,” he said.

Nwali pleaded for support from the government in the form of palliatives, loans, grant, machinery, reasonable moratorium period and ease of access to COVID-19 intervention funds for small businesses to boost production.

Another baker, Mrs Adeeze Okenwa, Producer of Whitney Bread, urged government to adopt a better strategy at curbing the spread of the coronavirus currently ravaging global economies.

Okenwa said this was necessary as residents could hardly continue to accommodate the current lockdown because able-bodied people now beg to eat.

She suggested that the government should allow flour mills, sugar producers and other businesses in the baking value chain to operate fully.

“They should introduce masks for everyone; if you must come out, wear mask or have hand sanitisers to keep COVID-19 at bay,” she said.