Bread Bakers Threaten Demo  Over Hikes In Price Of Flour

According to the Association, hikes in prices of flour, sugar, margarine, and other baking materials day in and day out are gradually collapsing their businesses and if care is not taken to sustain the industry and its collapses, it will be a tragedy for the country.

Checks revealed that currently a bag of flour (50kg) is sold for ₵630 and expected to hide ₵670 from Monday, December 5, 2022, in the region. In January  2022, a bag of flour was sold for ₵280, it increased to ₵305 and ₵315 in March, again from ₵315 to ₵345 and ₵375 in April, then to ₵405 in May. In June of this same year, the 50 kg was sold for ₵435 and increased to ₵465 in July, then to ₵495 in September. In October, it increased twice from ₵525 to ₵555 and from ₵555 to ₵595 in November.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Searchlight’s Reporter, Collins Fosu Appiah, Acting Regional Secretary, Faustina Agyei appealed to the government to engage major stakeholders in the industry especially producers and importers of flour and other baking materials, and see how best they can put heads together and find the proper solution to the sky-rocketing prices.

She alleged that last year the Association met the leadership of Olam Limited, producers of flour to see how best they can resolve the challenge to benefit them all, but they were told that the prices were going up due to the cedi depreciating but at some point in time they realized that the dollar was falling while the cedi was appreciating yet the price was still going up, so those in the Bono and Ahafo Regions begun to import from Ivory Coast and when they started importing from Ivory Coast,  Olam Limited started reducing their prices. But to their surprise, they heard the Leadership of Olam meet the government, and subsequently, government placed a ban on the import of flour from the Ivory Coast.

“We want the government to meet the industry players and if possible peg the dollar at a fixed rate for them and also reduce or move some taxes on these products so the prices will be stable for us for some time. If the government fails to intervene and it continues this way the industry will collapse and if that happens we should be ready for what happened in 1982, there will be long-lasting famine in the country which will not be good for us all.”

Acting Regional President of the Association, Johnson Yeboah added that for now they are pleading with the government to do something about the situation by way of addressing their concerns as soon as possible, but if nothing is done within the shortest possible time, they will advise themselves.

“For now we are appealing to the government to intervene and address our concerns as soon as possible. We have started engaging our members across the region, if nothing is done to address the challenges as soon as possible, then we are left with no other option than to demonstrate even for a whole month to express our displeasure  and possibly withdraw our services afterward.”