Soaring prices of flour and sugar have raised the prices of bread by 25 per cent, bakers said on Tuesday.

“States in the Eastern part of Nigeria began the implementation of the increment on Monday,” the President, Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria, Chief Bayo Folarin, told newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.

On April 9, bakers issued a warning to raise the prices of bread by 25 per cent, beginning Wednesday (today). They cited the high cost of baking materials notably flour and sugar.

Folarin said the eastern bakers had “jumped the gun” following a hard knock by the high cost of baking materials.

“Other parts of the country will join on May 12,” he said.

According to him, bread will be off the shelves beginning from May 6 to May 12, 2007.

By the increment, a big sized loaf of bread, which hitherto sold for between N120 and N150, will now sell for between N150 and N180.

Prices of bread, a major staple, have risen in the last three years by an average of about 25 per cent from between N80 and N120 per family-size loaf, to between N120 and N150 amid increases in the prices of baking materials.

Bakers said the decision to increase the prices of bread became the last option after a series of pleas to the government for intervention failed.

“We have written several times to the government on this issue but no positive result yet,” Folarin said.

Though alien to Nigeria, bread has come to stay as a staple in the country.

With rising food prices, especially rice, another staple, and beans among others, bread has become an option for the common man.

Bakers said the cost of baking materials increased by about 337 per cent in the last two years.

“Because of the increment, we proposed that tariff on wheat should be slashed to reduce the cost of baking as in other countries,” Folarin said.

Global food crises have taken a toll on developing nations, most on which rely heavily of imported foods.

Last week, the National Bureau of Statistics said rising food prices pushed the year-on-year inflation to 7.8 per cent.

Besides, China, the world‘s largest grain grower, is also trying to contain inflation that has jumped to an 11-year high. The government earlier this year imposed price control measures on food including vegetable oil and eggs.

Analyst said the food crisis demanded urgent attention by the government.

“It is an indication that more attention be paid to agriculture,” Prof. GB Ayoola, a lecturer at the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, said in a telephone interview.

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