Bread Scarcity Imminent In Ebonyi As Bakers Withdraw Services, Wednesday

Ebonyi State may soon witness scarcity of bread as the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria in the state has threatened to withdraw its services from July 13 as directed by its national body.
The state chairman of the association, Mr Felix Eze, who disclosed this in Abakaliki at the weekend after AMBCN’s meeting, said the withdrawal of service was necessitated by the Federal Government’s alleged insensitivity to the plight of bakers across the country.
According to him, the high prices of baking materials in the country had adversely affected bakers’ businesses.
“The prices of materials increase steadily as a bag of flour, which hitherto cost N25,000, presently costs more than N27,000. We are not embarking on the measure to the detriment of our customers, but to assist them and enhance our businesses”, he said.
The Tide reports that the South-East zonal leadership of the association had on July 6 directed states in the zone to comply with the national body’s directive on the withdrawal of services.
Eze urged the government to urgently address the challenges facing the baking industry in the country so as to enable bakers dutifully render their services to the people.
“The government should cut relevant taxes and check the ever-increasing exchange rate of foreign currencies. The producers of bakery products claim that such increment influences the prices of the materials.
“The government should ensure that the producers access foreign currencies at low rates as bakery products are among the cheapest food items citizens access”, he said.
Also speaking, the state Secretary of the association, Mr Felix Chimereze, said his colleagues decided to act now after enduring the challenges for too long.
“Nigerians are aware of the country’s dire economic situation and the added challenges necessitated our action. We urge our customers to bear with us as normalcy will return when the issues are addressed”, he said.