Proposed Flour Price Hike Could Mean Bread Over US$1

The National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe (NBAZ) has warned that a proposed hike in bread flour prices could push the cost of bread past the symbolic US$1 mark.

In a letter to Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu on October 24, NBAZ president Elvis Ncube said bakers were concerned about the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe’s (GMAZ) plan to raise bread flour prices by four per cent.

Ncube said flour already makes up about 43 per cent of the total cost of baking bread. The proposed increase would add around two cents to the cost of each loaf, which would likely be passed on to consumers through higher wholesale prices.

“If a four percent increase in bread flour is permitted, it will translate to a two-cent rise per loaf, effective the same day the flour price goes up.”

Bread is Zimbabwe’s second most important food item after maize meal, a daily staple in most urban and virtually all rural homes and often served as sadza/isitshwala (a thick porridge).

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