Bakers’ Association to increase efficiency in local market

The Bakers’ Association yesterday issued a call to bakery proprietors to increase the level of efficiency in their production process.

At a meeting held yesterday morning at Valpark Chinese Restaurant, bakery owners, flour retailers and other stakeholders gathered to discuss the repercussions of last Monday’s six percent increase in the price of flour by National Flour Mills (NFM) and other issues that are adversely affecting the market. The meeting was aimed at pinpointing problems facing the industry and finding solutions to such issues.

Several recommendations were made including the use of more sophisticated baking techniques such as the use of a multi-mat which weighs shapes and bakes dough to ensure efficient use of resources. Association president and owner of Affan’s Bakery Ronald Austin was able to point out specific bakeries and their owners who fail to attend meetings and incur high production costs as a result of archaic methods of production and poor supervision of the process.

Austin added, “the Minister is not concerned with these types of inefficiencies, to him market forces will take care of that. Oils and fats went up, there’s no alternative source for that. Labour, electricity and transport went up and there is no suitable alternative for those either.”