BREAD PRICE UP BY 69 CENTS

MBABANE – Consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets as tough times lie ahead.

This is because while the nation deals with the coronavirus pandemic, consumers will now have a hike in bread price to worry about.

Hardly a year since the bread price was hiked, the same has been effected at selected retail stores in the country with effect from October 26, 2020.

The price increase of bread follows the implementation of Legal Notice No.256 of 2020, which revoked Legal Notice No. 50 of 2015.  

The retail price of bread will now cost the consumer about 69 cents more. White bread will now be priced at E13.07 while brown bread will be selling at E11.39 maximum retail price. A government gazette confirming the latest developments was issued on October 23, 2020.

Anonymous

An economist, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the increase would affect emaSwati who lived below the poverty line more than the middle class.

He said automatically with the bread hike, this move would mean that the shopping basket for individuals would now contain less groceries as consumers would not be able to shop as much as before. 

When asked on what might have led to the hike, he said it was possibly caused by the increase in wheat and flour prices.  He said recently, flour prices in the SADC Region had increased and averred this could have been the main cause. However, he also added that this could lead to an increased inflation rate in the country.

He went on to say that it was more worrying because it would affect those who lived in abject poverty as they would not be able to afford to buy bread. He further noted that for every commodity being bought by the consumer, they were most likely to see a hike in inflation.  He said this would continue to erode consumers’ income even more than the bread price increase. 

The economist said this translated to salaries being affected and people having to experience less purchasing power. Meanwhile,  Eswatini Consumer Association Chairman Bongani ‘Bhanyaza’ Mdluli said it was the first time that as an organisation they were not engaged on the matter by bakeries and the regulating authority. 

Consider

“I am particularly surprised that we were not engaged on a roundtable like before. However, we urge the consumers to consider buying the less expensive bread,” he said.

Mdluli further advised that the consumers should opt for buying the cheap bread which costs around E5.10 for a 400-gramme loaf in order to save money. 

He went on to allege that the bakeries were not completely honest with the weight of the bread hence cheating the consumers of their money as they mostly opted for the bread that was priced at E10 or E11. 

Mdluli said normally, what happened was that government gave minimum and maximum and their advice to consumers was that they should go for the cheaper bread.

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