In the past, a poor person’s breakfast used to be rice pudding with milk. Today that is no longer the case. A small tin of milk is D35, a cup of sugar is D15 and a cup of rice is D12. Combined together for a family of five for the two cups rice, two cups of sugar and a tin of milk, one is likely to spend D75 for breakfast.
This does not include the firewood or charcoal to do the cooking. This is why many families have abandoned the notion that the cheapest breakfast is rice pudding. Many families have turned to bread and mayonnaise or butter with tea. The bread now cost D12. A family of five will have to spend D50 on bread alone. A cup of sugar costs D15. Hence a family of five will have to spend D80 for breakfast. The children would have to go to school requiring lunch.
What is clear is that the cost of living is getting higher. Approving the price of bread and giving the rise in the cost of inputs as the explanation should not be the position of the government that exists for the people. That government should acknowledge that any increase in price would result to hardship. The objective of a government that exists for the people is to put an end to the hardship.
Foroyaa is still monitoring the issue and government should consider reducing the prices of the inputs rather than increasing the price of bread.
The producers and consumers of bread are looking for solutions and not conflict between them. The two should be partners and not adversaries.
