Bread Producers Set To Increase Prices

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

Nigerians have been asked to get ready for the increase in prices of bread, a major food item on all Nigerians tables.

The increase in price is linked to the cost of production following the removal of oil subsidy and the liberalisation of the Foreign exchange market by the federal government.

According to Engr. Emmanuel Onuorah, President of Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria, stated that most baking ingredients are imported.

He asserted that forex floating led to increase in amount used for clearing, which lead to increase in prices of bread.

Emmanuel maintained that with the increase in the price of bread, there would be more drops in sales and more bakeries would close down.

He stressed that the removal of subsidy which caused the increase in commodities in the country was a decision made in haste without clear cut plan on how to mitigate the fallout.

He maintained that bread workers were not able to afford transport fare to the factory thereby impeding production due to unavailability of workers.

“Some of our members have delivery vans that use fuel, it spiked their cost of delivery which dovetailed into increased cost of production and reduced margins”, Emmanuel stated.