With the economy being what it is bakers are in a hard fix. On one hand, they are relying on imported wheat which makes bread prices especially sensitive to the constant upward movement of the exchange rate. On the other hand, they have to contend with depressed demand as most people find bread unaffordable.

Faced with such a conundrum, Lobels Bread, it seems, simply decided not to participate this week. In our recent survey, we couldn’t find a single Lobels bread loaf in any of the supermarkets we visited.

They were not alone in their absence. Usually, major supermarkets like OK and Pick N Pay have their own in-shop bakeries that bake and sell bread within a number of branches. None of the shops we visited had baked or was selling their own in-house bread.

Proton and Bakers Inn Continue to deliver but are people buying?

As opposed to last week when there was a general shortage of bread this week it was the familiar story we picked up on a few weeks ago. Bread shelves were filled to the brim with bread from both Proton and Bakers Inn in all the branches we visited. Both brands were selling at around $9.50 a loaf depending on the shop.

Just like the previous price it seems most people simply cannot afford these prices either. As has already been mentioned it also doesn’t seem like bakers have a choice as the price of wheat has also gone up. Wheat which has to be imported.

It’s the same story with flour too

Those who are into baking might also have noticed that the price of 2kg flour has risen from an average of $21.00 per month at the beginning of September to around $26 at the moment.