21 January 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican Association of Bakers (AMOPAO) has warned that the price of bread will rise by up to 14.3 per cent as from 1 February.
Cited in Monday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", AMOPAO chairperson Victor Miguel said a loaf weighing 200 grams, that now costs four meticais, will cost 4.5 meticais - a rise of 12.5 per cent.
But smaller bread rolls will also go up in price by 50 centavos - from 3.5 to four meticais, which is an increase of 14.3 per cent. Such increases show how useful it is for speculators that coins smaller than 50 centavos have entirely disappeared from circulation.
In theory, coins of 20, 10, five and even one centavo exist. But no-one knows where they are. They are certainly never offered as change in shops. Their absence is an excuse for price increases never to be less than 50 centavos.
The justification for higher bread prices is that since October the price of a 50 kilo sack of wheat flour charged by the milling companies has risen by 220 meticais. (The last increase in the price of bread was in September 2007).
Asked whether there was any way to avoid increasing the price of bread, Miguel suggested that the solution would be to increase local production of wheat, thus ending the country's dependence on imports.
"We would like the government to help us by encouraging wheat production", he said. "We have provinces such as Tete and Manica where wheat can be grown".
As for the proposal to produce cheaper bread by mixing wheat and cassava flour, Miguel said "there isn't enough cassava production. But if this production were encouraged, and if we had sufficient quantities, this would also help".
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