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Inflation: FG should subsidise cassava flour costs – MBA
If bakers begin utilizing cassava flour, the group said, demand for cassava will soar, driving up prices and making it challenging for farmers…
- FG should subsidise cassava flour costs
- Nigeria’s food inflation surged to 23.72% in October
The Master Bakers Association, a group of professional bakers in Nigeria, has called on the Federal Government to subsidize cassava flour costs in Nigeria and encourage the use of the product.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sponsored a master bakers’ capacity-building workshop on the use of high-quality cassava flour for baking bread, and the association’s chairman, Dr. Chidi Orlu, made the call during it (FMARD).
If bakers begin utilizing cassava flour, the group said, demand for cassava will soar, driving up prices and making it challenging for farmers to supply the needs.
Dr. Orlu pointed out that the country’s high cost of cassava flour had discouraged people from using it to make bread and posed a significant obstacle to the government’s efforts to stop the importation of wheat for making bread.
READ MORE: BREAKING: Nigeria’s inflation rate hits 21.09% in October 2022
He continued, pointing out that using wheat flour to make bread and other confections is less expensive than using cassava flour, which requires 2.5 kg of butter to make decent bread from 50 kg of cassava flour compared to 500g of butter for making bread from 50 kg of wheat flour. He said:
“Inflation is now so high. Where do we get high-quality cassava flour and if available, at what rate? If bakers decide to use cassava flour, the demand for cassava will be massive and that will make it difficult for some farmers to meet the demand from bakers.
“All over the world, when you start a project of this nature the desire may not be achieved at the beginning; it’s something you get in the long run.”
According to Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the government’s agricultural strategy is ready to create an agribusiness ecosystem that would address the difficulties facing the agricultural industry.
He pointed out that the execution of the cassava inclusion policy hasn’t succeeded in meeting the master bakers’ demand for cassava flour due to several issues that stakeholders are currently attempting to resolve.
In Nigeria, the core inflation rate increased to 17.76% from 17.6% while the food inflation rate increased to 23.72% from 23.34% in October.