Bread to be scarce as bakers consider shutdown

The association said the continued rise in the price of diesel had made the price of the commodity to be doubled, warning that a total shutdown of operations by break-makers was imminent.

The PBAN President, Emmanuel Onuorah, made the declaration during an interview with newsmen.

“This country may collapse on everybody. Industries will shut down operations, and all of us will go down. Imagine the price of diesel going towards N850/litre,” he said.

“Remember, I said wheat is not the problem, and that it is energy that will be the major problem in this Russian-Ukraine war. Almost N850 for a litre of diesel, and they are still increasing it every day.

“Is it that marketers just brought in this product and this is why they are increasing the price by the day? Our businesses will just begin to shut down one after the other. That’s what I’m contemplating doing now. I will shut down all the bakeries.

“Diesel is what we use in running our generators, diesel is what we use in running our oven. What we were buying N350 is now about N850 in less than a week.”

Onuorah said the ripple effects of the diesel price hike would have a major effect on industries across the globe, particularly in Nigeria where there are no current measures to cushion negative impacts.

To prevent an imminent shutdown of operations, the PBAN president called on the federal government to urgently accelerate efforts towards tackling the problem.