The president of the Association of Bakery and Pastry Industries of Angola (AAIPA), Gilberto Simão defends the implementation of the industrial professional card to prevent the manufacture of poor quality bread. He also said that if the government does not put order and reinforce supervision in bakeries, we will continue to eat bread in conditions unsuitable for humans.
What is the current situation of the bakery industry in Angola?
The situation in bakery in Angola is summarized in the import of wheat grain for processing into wheat flour, at the moment there is no problem of lack of raw material, because the government meets the concerns of the needs in the acquisition of wheat flour. We currently have more than 10 mills that are processing wheat flour. Simply processing the product is not satisfying the domestic market, because it is being re-exported.
The problem is with the distributors. The wholesalers carry out their legal activity by passing the product from hand to hand and the 50 kilo bag of wheat flour that on the domestic market is sold for 26 thousand kwanzas, the wholesalers are selling it for 40 thousand kwanzas. There is a lot of price speculation to cause shortages. Wheat flour is being taken to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a 50 kg bag is being sold for the equivalent of USD 100. A false dilemma has been created that there is no wheat flour, which is not true because there is a lot of raw materials are only re-exported.
What do you think should be done?
The government must take measures and monitor. The inspection of economic activities (ANIESA) must perform its supervisory role. With this situation, national bakery industries are unable to maintain production with the high price of wheat flour and are closing down. Today 80% of bakeries are in the hands of foreigners, because they are the ones who have the economic power to manage the bread production situation. In addition to the bakeries managed by foreigners who are playing their role, we have large supermarkets also selling bread. Large supermarkets may not make as much profit from the sale of bread, but they do make money from the sale of other products such as oil, flour, beans and others.
