BLACK MARKET FOR BREAD PRICE ‘HIKES TO E25’

MBABANE – All sorrows are less with bread.

This ancient adage proves true on the current situation in the country as hundreds queued for bread at Prime Bakeries yesterday. Prime Bakery sold the bread in bulk and customers had to buy at least six. Some customers had to put their money together so that it reaches the minimum E60 for six loaves while others were shop owners who intended to buy in bulk for stocking at their shops. One of the shop owners who came all the way from Maguga, said the bakery was not reaching the area since the protests began. He said he even struggled to get other items for his shop because the suppliers like Ruchi Stores in Matsapha where he normally bought his stock, were vandalised and looted.

guaranteed

“Having at least bread in your store is enough to have customers come in because you are guaranteed that they would come out carrying something. We have run out of stock and getting it has never been hard,” he said. When asked how much he would sell the bread given that it was now standing at E25, especially on the streets, he said that it would be unfair to sell it at that price because that would be taking advantage of the crisis which was not fair to the customers. “One has to know his customers and the economy at the area the shop is situated. I would not want to double the price of bread but obviously it will not be the same,” he said. Another interviewed customer, who preferred anonymity, said he was going to sell it at his neighbourhood at E20 since it was very scarce yet essential.

“I was taught that if a business opportunity knocks, take it and put it into good use,” he said briefly. The observation in some major food retailers in town was that a majority of the trolleys had more than one bread in them.  This is despite that bread is now double its normal price in the black market due to scarcity of the essential commodity caused by the closure of shops and manufacturing companies owing to the ongoing political unrest in the country. Reports from local media houses suggested that bread price shoot up to E20 and E25 a loaf on the streets.

observed

At Pick n Pay Mbabane, Blue ribbon brown bread costs E16.39 while the one baked at the store costs E8. One of the shop managers said it was people who bought in bulk who then sold at a higher price. Also observed was that shelves of flour were empty at some food retailers as people have opted to bake at their homes both for domestic and commercial purposes. Fatcakes, popularly known as emafethi, are now popular as people have substituted bread with same, especially for breakfast and business is booming for retailers of the fat-cakes. Shortage of bread due to political unrest also hit Syria and according to international reports, a deepening economic crisis, coupled with the significant destruction of infrastructure over a decade of conflict primarily by the Syrian government and its allies, led to severe wheat shortages.

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