The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers in Nigeria, Edo Chapter, says it will participate in the proposed nation-wide withdrawal of service as directed by its national body.
Mr Benjamin Agbonze, Chairman of the association in Edo, disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Wednesday, shortly after the association’s monthly meeting.
Agbonze said the withdrawal of service was necessitated by the incessant increment in the prices of baking materials in the country.
“Our national body has directed that on July 13 to 27, we should withdraw our services in order to rearrange ourselves to meet up with the current economic realities.
“A bag of flour that was sold for about N21,000 in the month of January this year has gone up to about N30,000; we are not making profit with the continued increment in the cost of materials used in the baking business.
“The national body has resolved that we cannot continue to increase the price of bread, so we are calling on the government across board to intervene.
“We want the government to help reduce the tariff on baking materials and also give flour millers easy access to foreign exchange.
“People are already looking for an alternative to bread and if we continue to increase prices of bread based on continued hike in production materials, we will go out of business.”
The national body of the association, during its National Executive Council meeting in June, issued a directive to its units in the country to embark on two weeks withdrawal of service starting from July 13.
The Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN), South-East chapter, confirmed it would withdraw its services from July 13, as directed by its national body.
The Zonal Chairman of the association, Chief Dominic Nwibe, made this known in an interview with our correspondent Wednesday.
Anambra State is presumed to have the highest number of bread bakers in the South-East.
On June 26, the National President of AMBCN, Malam Mansur Umar, said members would begin a two-week strike from July 13, citing an increase in the prices of bakery materials.
He said: “We had a zonal meeting in Abakaliki and decided to follow the directive which is supposed to last for two weeks.
“A bag of baking flour which hitherto cost N25,000 presently cost N28,000 and is worrisome that it will keep increasing.
“A bag of sugar which hitherto cost N9,000 presently cost N30,000 while 20 litres of groundnut oil costs about N20,000,” he said.
He said that the members felt it was unnecessary to keep increasing the prices of bakery products such as bread to the detriment of customers.
He said: “The customers would feel that we are greedy and we want to let the federal government know that the situation had become unbearable.
“We are asking for the liberalisation of the sugar importation process to break the monopoly by two or three firms.
“These firms import sugar and control its price mechanisms as the withdrawal of services will make our customers know we are telling the truth on reasons for price increases.”
The zonal chairman regretted that the authorities blamed the high cost of materials on the economic effects of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“We don’t see any justification to this assertion as flour, for instance, can be sourced from nearby countries,” he said.
Also speaking, the South-East Zonal Secretary of the association, Mr Okey Ezeanata, said that bakers have been seriously affected by the development as most of them “have closed shops.
“The market forces have been unfair to us and as the time we increased prices of products in April till present, there have been several changes.
“We urge the Federal Government to allow mass participation in our materials’ importation process just like in the telecommunication sector,” he said.
The association alleged that the National Wheat Cultivation Committee already constituted is yet to be inaugurated after over one year.
In March, bakers complained that the hike in diesel price and exchange rate volatility caused many of its members across the country to shut down their business operations.
