Mozambican bakers seek strategy to face pressure from new competitor

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Mozambican bakers seek strategy to face pressure from new competitor

11:49 CAT | 26 Apr 2018

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The Mozambican Association of Bakeries (AMOPAO) held an emergency meeting on Tuesday over worries that had previously affected only a minority, but which were now common to everyone in the sector, O País reports.

Bakeries in the city and province of Maputo are complaining of a sharp fall in revenue that has already led to lay-offs, and which they say was probably triggered by pressure from a new competitor.

“We’re having a hard time since the Espiga D’oro started to operate. It has opened outlets less than 50 metres from our own. Before, we could bake up ten 50-kg bags of flour, but today, we are reduced to two bags per day,” Arlindo Afonso, the manager of a bakery in Matola’s 1º de Maio neighbourhood, says.

Another source told O País that his business had already laid off workers because of the situation, and that he was pondering shutting down if the situation prevailed.

“I’ve already laid off 12 workers because revenues have gone down and production costs have increased. Today, the bread takes days to sell, which never happened before. If this situation continues, I really will close the bakeries,” said Amélia Mutisse, a baker in the same neighbourhood.

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At the meeting on Tuesday, AMOPAO backed a meeting with the bakery in question, at which it will launch an appeal to review the agreement on market mechanisms between the parties.

It was also agreed by members that if there was no agreement with the new competitor, another possibility would be to take the case to the government, specifically the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

Source: O País