A bread seller said she could not order any because of the fear that not many people could afford it. Six months ago, the loaf of bread that is now N750, was N450.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The price of bread has risen again in most parts of the country, leaving consumers jittery that the major breakfast staple will be beyond their reach.
A bread seller in Lagos yesterday told this reporter that a loaf that sells for N650 has now risen to N750. She could not order any because of the fear that not many people could afford it. Six months ago, that size of bread was N450.
A report by the Daily Post, reveals that consumers of bread in parts of Cross River State have lamented the ever-increasing price of bread and have appealed to master bakers not to carry out their threat to further increase product prices.
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Master Bakers is a major confectionery company in the state.
The bakery is threatening to raise it’s price of beard by 50% because of the high costs of baking.
The newspaper said it carried out random interviews with bread consumers who all expressed fear over the increase.
A respondent, Itam Inang said “We strongly appeal to them to appreciate our plights. We appreciate theirs. We understand what they go through during these hyperinflation times. But for many of us, our buying power is very low having not had any appreciable increase in our incomes.
“We need to eat bread. Presently, a family-sized loaf which goes for N800/N900 cannot go round my family of four. My children love eating bread. This is why I appeal to them not to increase the prices of bread again.”
Madam Esther Fidel, a teacher, similarly lamented that bread is now luxury food for the rich.
She appealed to the government to look at the inflation in the country for the sake of the common people.
“Government should pay attention to the ever-increasing prices of food items. We need their deliberate intervention to put down prices so that we can also eat bread.”
An official of the bakery association in the state, Fred Williams said that many bakers might reduce the quality of their bread products.
“Price of bread might likely increase very soon in Cross River State by 50%. This is owing to high costs of diesel to power our generators, high cost of bags of flour, sugar, oil etc.
“Before now, we used to buy power than N500 but now it is N700 per litre. Flour used to be N20,000 now it is N22,000 per bag. When you add transportation and other logistics, you cannot afford to bear such costs alone otherwise you will close shops.”
