In our recent survey, we noticed something strange: there seems to be pricing confusion in the bread market at the moment with all different major bakers charging different prices. The cheapest bread we could find was in Pick N Pay, baked in-house, their TM loaf was going for $13.00 ZWL.

Bakers Inn meanwhile was going for more than $18.50ZWL. Making it the most expensive loaf. That is nothing new, however, over the past 6 months, we have noticed that Bakers Inn is usually the most expensive loaf in most shops if all loaves are not being sold for the same price. Whenever there is a rumoured price increase, the Simbisa owned brand never seems to be the first to effect the increase.

Lobels Bread

Bakers Inn

The case of confusing subsidies

The Finance Minister proposed that subsidies on grain be removed sending the market into a tailspin. The President has announced that subsidies are not going to be removed since grain is a staple. However, his remarks seemed to apply to maize. The question remains are wheat prices covered by the reversal or not?