THE Government has moved to break the monopoly in the bread
industry through resuscitation of indigenous bakeries that used to operate in
various communities, a Cabinet Minister said.
In his independence speech, President Mnangagwa said the
Government was committed to address price distortions in all sectors of the
economy.
He said one of the ways of doing so was opening of
small-scale bakeries. Such bakeries will service their localities resulting in
low costs of transport, among others, to ensure that the price of bread is
affordable.
In an interview, Industry and Commerce Minister, Cde
Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu said the Government was interrogating factors that
led to the closure of some small-scale bakeries.
He said the resuscitation of small-scale bakeries could
break the monopoly which has seen a few players dominating the bread industry
leading to the exploitation of consumers.
“We had bakeries that were preferred in our local
communities. When they closed I don’t believe there was an effort or study to
understand why they had to close because their closure did not translate to
shortage of bread. People did not put effort, those were our indigenous
businesses closing and why was it so? That was the beginning of the genesis of
cartels and monopolies, where a big guy controls the supply of flour to you a
competitor and they determine the price they sell to you and the quantities.
And if you are to become a big competitor, you would face shortages,” said Cde
Ndlovu.
He said the monopolies were dictating the bread price and
this was seen when they arbitrarily increased its price to $3,50 from $2 per
loaf .
Cde Ndlovu said it was not true that the main bread sellers
were the only ones producing quality bread, as it has been evident that other
bakeries could produce a competitive loaf of bread which is selling at a lower
price especially in supermarkets.
“Even us as Government, we had to wake up at this point
where we realised that two big guys can decide to make such a big move on the
bread industry. No doubt such big institutions create employment, but they have
grown organically over time in ways that constrain competition. And that is
what we are worried about. It’s not easy to say let’s deal with them unless to
say let’s increase competition.
“We are being made to believe that we need the Baker’s Inn,
Lobels and Proton kind of standard of bread, but I know when you go to TM Pick
and Pay, Choppies supermarkets, their bread is selling more than others. Why is
that so? You’ll find out most of those bakeries are using mostly local inputs,
but these big guys will tell you about their quality, but when people are given
forex to import raw inputs anything can happen.”
He said to break the monopoly the Government will give
Grain Marketing Board the mandate of importing and selling wheat in the
country.
Cde Ndlovu said the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community,
Small and Medium Enterprises Development has been tasked to identify bakeries
that would be resuscitated.
He said the re-opening of the community bakeries would
create employment and was one of the low hanging fruits in devolution of power
implementation.
“Our programme now is to identify those bakeries, look at
their needs, what they require to come back to life and we see as Government
how to support them mostly through the Ministry of SMEs, but we have resolved
that let us bring them back. If you have a bakery in Binga why would your bread
come from Harare?” asked Cde Ndlovu.
Super Fresh Bakery proprietor Mr Sinothi Nsingo who owns a
small bakery in Bulawayo said Government’s move to open small bakeries was
welcome. He said the monopoly in the bakery industry has frustrated most small
bakeries out of business.
“It’s difficult to access flour due to the muscle of these
bigger bakeries. They decide the quantities of flour one gets as well as the
prices which has pushed so many small bakeries out of business. We can provide
quality bread and our clients can attest to it.
“At the moment we are selling bread at $2,50 because we
have cut transportation costs as our bread is sold locally. We also appeal that
in the spirit of devolution Government injects funds to local bakery owners
whose shops shut. Community bakeries should be community bakeries in letter and
spirit. We don’t expect foreign persons to be running bakeries yet Government
would have funded the process.” Sunday News
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