For their part, the two Maputo milling companies, Africom (which owns the Machava/Socimol factory) and the Companhia Industrial de Matola (CIM - the largest food processor in the country) say that their flour prices are directly related to the international price of wheat.
According to a source in the Bakers Association, a 50 kilo bag of wheat flour now costs 550 meticais (about 22 US dollars).
But at the time of the last rise in bread prices, in April 2004, flour only cost 390 meticais a sack. It rose to 440 meticais in 2005, to 502 meticais in 2006 and in late April 2007 to the current price of 550 meticais.
The Bakers Association source said "we have been holding down the price of bread for the last three years, despite the rise in the cost of wheat. We have been holding down the costs of production to prevent an increase in the cost of bread".
The source complained that the milling companies increase the prices without any warning.
"For us, it makes no sense that the government urges the production and consumption of national products when their price is simply prohibitive", said the paper's anonymous source. "We think it would be fair for the government to take measures and define a clear policy about basic products in order to prevent the situation becoming unbearable for consumers".
The milling companies are said to be planning a new increase in the price of a 50 kilo bag of flour to 580 meticais, which "will undoubtedly force an increase in the price of bread", according to the bakers.
But CIM spokesman Stephan Schafer argues that "the bakers have no reason to complain about increases in the price of flour, because if anyone is a winner in this business, it's them".
He pointed out that a study undertaken by the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that baking remains a lucrative business.
Schafer added that, since Mozambique does not produce wheat, it is at the mercy of international wheat prices. "The price of wheat and other grains has been rising recently on the world market and this affects the milling companies".
One way out, he suggested, would be for the government to subsidise bakers.
SOURCE: AIM
