Bakeries operating at 50pc capacity

Shepias Dube Business Reporter
THE LOCAL baking industry is operating at 50 percent capacity mainly due to acute shortage of wheat in the country, an official in the National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe (NBAZ) has said. Statistics released by Mr Ambrose Mandikiyana, who was standing in for the association’s national president Mr Givemore Mesoemvura at the just ended 2015 Zimbabwe Food Conference and Expo held at a Bulawayo hotel on Friday under the theme “Enhancing food security’, shows that bread production in the country stands at about a million tonnes a day.

However, the national installed capacity of all the bakeries is two million loaves a day.
Mr Mandikiyana said there were over 250 operational bakeries with a daily consumption of about 500 tonnes of flour.
The industry requires between 360 000 to 400 000 million tonnes of wheat to feed the nation every year.

Over 6 000 people are employed by the industry, 15 percent of whom are females.
Meanwhile, Mr Mandikiyana said the baking industry was working closely with millers in supporting wheat production in the country.
“The wheat value chain shows that the baker is not directly linked to the farmer but to the miller. So in short the miller should be at the forefront in terms of supporting wheat farmers while the baker compliments the miller,” he said.

The value chain actors include the farmer, miller, baker and consumer in their order.
He said as a way of showing commitment towards the resuscitation of local wheat production and support for local industry both the bakers and millers last month reviewed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) where bakers reiterated their commitment to continue procuring 75 percent of their monthly flour requirements locally while 25 percent is imported for blending purposes.

The MoU was initially signed in 2013.
“Last month Bakers and Millers reviewed the MoU which was initially signed two years ago, and further extended it by another two years on the same terms that Bakers import 25 percent of their monthly requirements for blending purposes while procuring 75 percent locally.
“From these purchases millers will then fund locally wheat production,”

Mr Mandikiyana said while the baking industry was unable to directly support wheat farmers it was willing to fully support local milling industry as per MoU.
He encouraged members in the supply chain (farmers and millers) to improve product quality to enable bakers to reduce flour required for blending.