Nigerians lament over the hike in the prices of goods especially bread.
They accused the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria for indiscriminatel
increase of food prices, describing it as wickedness.
Meanwhile, the bakers said that the price increase is unavoidable for them in order to stay in business.
This, they attributed to the general rise in the production cost of goods.
Experts noted that the country is facing a cost-push inflation.
Analysts have described the constant increase in production cost which
affects the consumer price index and other related services as cost-push inflation. This, according to them might be as a result of increase in the prices of raw materials which gives rise to cost-push inflation, which
results to high cost of living.
Manufacturing and production firms have witnessed a sharp rise in
purchasing costs due to difficulties in securing materials, leading to
higher output prices. There is general rise in the prices of goods
especially bread which is the commonest food consumed by the general public.
A sales representative of Esosa Food Systems and Innovation Nigeria, a
company that is into the production of bread in Port Harcourt, Mr.
Chimeremeze Favour in an interview with our reporters said that, the
increase in the price of bread is as a result of the increase in the
prices of the materials such as flour, industrial milk, industrial
sugar, butter, and others.
He, however, explained that the price of flour is now N23,800, as
against the old price of N19,000. This has pushed up the price of
bread (finish product). Bread that was formerly sold for N500 is now
sold for N800
Mr. Favour equally said that if the old price remains while the production cost is still high, producers and manufacturers would operate
at loss, express that high cost raw materials necessitated the
increase in consumer prices.
He regretted the hike in the prices of goods and services and
prays it would not continue
This, he said has affected sales as many consumers cannot afford to spend such amount on bread.
“The same applies to other goods especially food
items where the prices are steadily going up and Nigerians decry of
such arbitrary increase in the prices of goods even the agricultural
produce”, he added.
