Bread bakers in Kano State, under the auspices of Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, Kano chapter have called on government to intervene in the rising cost of flour and other ingredients used in baking bread.
The Secretary of the Association, Kabiru Abdullahi said price per bag of flour has steeply moved from N9000 in early 2020 to the current price of over N16,000, a development that has tremendously impacted on the groups Production cost leading to losses.
He appealed to the government to look into the flour milling industry as bread is a staple food in the country in addition to high employment opportunities the sector has created.
“Government should not allow the business to collapse as it is a source of income to thousands of youths in the state as well as food security to the nation…. Again, in this period of security challenges, allowing our business to collapse is dangerous,” he said.
He said the group was strategising on how to increase the price of bread for their businesses to survive.
According to him, ”the association has the option to shutdown business and subsequently increase the price because of market forces, but in order not to render thousands of youths jobless which could be a threat to peaceful coexistence of the state, they decided to bear the brunt, remain in the business, strategically increase the price and minimise the impact on the masses.”
Abdullahi however disclosed that after holding a general meeting, the association had directed its members to meet with the grassroot bakers in 10 days time, to come up with a unified price increment that would not have negative impact on the populace in the state.
He disclosed that the association had tried severally to meet with the managements of the flour companies in a bid to bring down the price, but their efforts were unsuccessful as the mills cited COVID-19 as the reason why the meeting could not hold.
The Secretary wondered why the price of flour was N9, 000 from late 2019 and early 2020 when the dollar exchange rate was N400 or above, but it has now reached over N16,000 while the dollar rate is still not more than N500.
He called on flour millers especially, the Chairman and management of BUA Group of Companies to reduce the price of flour product as well as improve on the supply of the market.
A baker, Abubakar Bello Ja’en, who is the manager of ABJ Bread said the business is encountering a number of problems, majorly the increase in the price of flour.
Ja’en stated that the association had informed them that there would be no strike, but they must increase the price of the bread to save their businesses.
He said that the decision to increase the price is not the preferred choice of the association, adding that the bakers wanted the price of flour to reduce than to increase the price of bread.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
