Bakers call for reduction in input prices as dollar cost drops

Bakers want manufacturers and distributors to cut input prices as dollar-naira exchange rate drops.

Bakers use sugar, butter, flour and yeast as inputs but the prices of most of them have doubled in the last one year on the back of dollar crunch.

Manufacturers import raw materials needed to produce these products but dollar crunch has doubled their production costs in the last 18 months.

But with the parallel market selling dollar at N360-N380/$, as against over N470/$ in the last three months, bakers want manufacturers to drop their prices to ensure their survival.

“When the dollar price was rising, our suppliers were increasing their prices. They blamed it on the dollar price, but now that the dollar price is dropping, they do not want to cut down their prices,” Jude Okafor, national publicity secretary of the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, told Real Sector Watch in a telephone chat.

According to Okafor, the Federal Government should step in to control prices of inputs as manufacturers of sugar, butter, yeast and flour still are yet to cut their prices one month after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) crashed the exchange rate price to N360/$.

“The Federal Government should be alerted. They should step in to save us,” he said.

He attributed the initial hike in sugar prices to high dollar cost, but wondered why manufacturers and distributors have failed to bring down prices at a point dollar-naira exchange rate is N360/$.

“This could bring back the era of the use of alternatives such as sagarine, which is dangerous to the health of those above 40 years. When the price of flour N5,800, the price of sugar was N6,500. But when the price of flour rose to N11,000, that of sugar soared to N19,000 and has remained there until last week when the price fell to N18,000,” Okafor said.

He urged for a price drop to enable bakers assimilate workers that have been sacked on the basis of jumping production costs.

An official of one of the sugar refiners, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said prices of these products would fall soon, as soon as old stocks bought at high dollar rate were exhausted.

ODINAKA ANUDU