Bakers are considering a price increment of 25 per cent per loaf of bread as rising prices of wheat flour and sugar is hitting hard on the baking industry, the President, Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, Chief Bayo Folarin, has said.
The bakers also said they would begin strike on April 23, a decision that would remove bread off the shelves in the country.
The decision will see a large-sized loaf of bread, which currently sells at between N120 and N150 trading at between N150 and N185.
The new price band is part of the resolutions of the association at a meeting in Sagamu, Ogun State, on Tuesday.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, Folarin said besides the 25 per cent increase, the association would also withdraw its services on the April 23 to allow members to embark on a �turn around maintenance of bakeries across the nation.�
�Resumption will be a week after,� Folarin said.
According to him, the recent increment in the prices of baking materials especially flour and sugar and the steps taken by the association to intimate the Federal Government about the suffering of bakers and the meeting with flour millers never yielded fruitful result.
�Because of this, the association has decided that on April 23, our members will withdraw their services, after which the price of bread will be increased by 25 per cent on every size of loaf,� Folarin said.
Global spikes in commodities are threatening food prices in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria said on April 2.
Folarin said some flour millers had increased the price of 50kg bag of flour from N4, 675 to N5, 125 which is a N450 increment.
On February 21, bakers petitioned President Umar Yar�Adua on the lingering insecurity in the bread industry allegedly orchestrated by flour millers.
In the petition, the bakers said as a staple food, there was the need for the government to regulate the price of the commodity and its raw materials.
�The petition has not yielded positive response from the government,� Folarin said.
Prices of bread, a major staple have risen in the last three years by an average of about 25 per cent from between N80 and N120 per family-size loaf to between N120 and N150 per family-size loaf amid increases in prices of baking materials.