Bread price to go up

Bakers' Association of Zimbabwe president Wellington Peyama has warned rising input costs and declining production levels in the sector could see the price of bread increasing.
On average a loaf of bread costs $1.
Last year bakers temporarily increased the price of bread by 10% to absorb increased production costs arising from an increase in the fuel price.
Peyama said: "Unless government intervenes, the price of bread will go up." He could, however, not be drawn into revealing the margin of increase.
He said the industry faced a plethora of challenges that needed urgent attention.
Capacity utilisation in the sector is estimated at 15%.
The industry is producing 600 000 loaves of bread against a national daily requirement of 1,6 million loaves.
"Banks are not forthcoming with loans. The tight liquidity situation in the country is one of the major factors that have negatively impacted on the development of the sector. The situation is dire. We are operating from hand to mouth," Peyama said
He said the country was experiencing critical shortages of flour and bakers had had to import expensive flour from Mozambique.
Peyama said the bakers were also grappling to replace obsolete machinery, which meant production had remained subdued.
There are fears that if the price of bread goes up it would further complicate the unresolved issue of change, a big source of inflation, as consumers would be forced to buy bread and other unwanted goods for transactions to complete.