Bread crisis looms…Tension, outrage as cost of bread to rise soon unless

*Bread

 Palpable tension has gripped the nation since the threat of increment in the cost of bread, Nigeria’s most staple food was given by stakeholders of the confectionaries industry. 

To many, this alarm is pointer that a bread crisis looms.

 Reports from streets of major cities in Nigeria like Lagos, P.H, Enugu, Benin and Ibadan etc, say there is scarcity and epileptic supply already. 

Barely a week ago, the Premium BreadMakers Association of Nigeria(PBAN) and the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) in a joint briefing alerted the nation on the looming crisis leaving Nigerians in unending lamentation and outrage.

 The bakers threatened to react to rising cost of baking ingredients by increasing the prices of bread unless President Buhari wades into their plight. 

PBAN President, Tosan Jemide, lamented the slow pace of business lately because of uncontrollable increase in the prices of baking ingredients. He noted that in the last six months, the prices of flour, sugar and other baking ingredients had skyrocketed without a corresponding increase in the prices of bread by bakers.

 According to PUNCH report Jemide said, “We have been busy helping them remain profitable while our businesses suffer, because we are more in tune with the purchasing power of the consumer and are deeply concerned about food security.

 “PBAN and AMBCN shall no longer take seat and watch such blatant increases in prices going forward. We shall react with equal price increases or stiff resistance.” 

Jemide appealed to government to intervene in the rising cost by prevailing on millers to stop the incessant increment of the prices of commodities. 

He also called on the President Muhammadu Buhari  to help the industry by reining in on the millers or supporting them in whatever way they could to help the stakeholders. 

However reports of a systemic reduction in the size of bread are rife across the states.