Bread price increase imminent

RYAN CHIGOCHE

The National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe has warned of an imminent increase in the price of bread after millers upped the price of wheat flour by more than half.

In early March wheat prices went up nearly 15% to ZWL$136,544 per metric tonne, with the bakers responding by a 18.25% increase in the price of bread.

Last week, millers also increased the price of wheat bread flour by 31% to ZWL$215,000 per metric tonne in response to an increase in the price of wheat by the Grain Marketing Board.

Speaking to Business Times the President of NBAZ Dennis Wala signalled another increase in bread prices saying any change in the wheat value chain would negatively affect the consumer who is at the end of the wheat value chain.

“The baking industry is within the wheat to bread value chain. So any challenges experienced be it increased costs of production and quality of the final product from one value chain member will definitely have an effect on the quality and price of the final product to the next value chain member,” Wala said.

Players in the wheat value chain have attributed the recent surge in wheat prices to the Russia-Ukraine war which saw prices of fuel, which is the lifeline for any production chain in any industry, going up.

As the world feared the war would lead the West to ban Russian oil, crude oil prices skyrocketed  to a 14-year high of $140 a barrel as of  7 March 2022.

This has prompted food prices to rise not only in Zimbabwe but world over.

In Zimbabwe, soaring prices have angered workers whose salaries have lagged behind inflation. The looming increase in the price of bread will only embolden calls by employees to have their salaries indexed to the dollar.

Currently a loaf of bread is selling at ZWL$273 in major retail outlets.