Persistent power outages, high utility tariffs and lack of long-term funding threaten the viability of the baking industry, a development that has seen bread production in Harare decline by 150 000 loaves, it has been learnt.
National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe president Cydwell Chitewe on Tuesday said the solution to the current bread shortage was providing long-term funding for recapitilisation to the country’s bakeries at reasonable interest rates.
In a written response to NewsDay Chitewe said the bakery sector had not been spared by liquidity challenges affecting the country.
“The challenge is due to low capacity utilisation as two big bakeries in Harare which jointly produced over 150 000 loaves a day are producing at below capacity due to obsolete machinery and failure to raise funding for recapitalisation,” said Chitewe.
“Winter season is usually a peak period for bread consumption and bakeries now need to adjust to the increased demand.”
He said while some shops had experienced bread shortages lately, there was no need to panic. Bakers had only to increase their output in line with the demands of the season.
“I don’t believe this problem is serious, otherwise bread queues and empty shelves would be the order of the day,” Chitewe said.
Chitewe said demand for bread for Harare market (including peri-urban) was about 650 000 loaves and current production was estimated at around 500 000.
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The required national bread demand is estimated at 1 167 650 loaves per day.
“There are other perennial problems which threaten bakeries such as persistent power outages and high Zesa tariffs and water cuts but it must be noted the biggest threat to the industry remains high wages which are not in tandem with inflation nor productivity,” said Chitewe.
A snap survey of some shops in Harare indicated that indeed there was a bread shortage with a number of supermarkets confirming that bread quantities delivered had been reduced in recent days.
