"There is no shortage of wheat, what there is is price speculation. What happens is that our Government spends a lot of money to import wheat to be processed into flour and satisfy the domestic market, but unfortunately this flour is being exported", said the president of AIPPA, Gilberto Simão, this Monday in an interview with Lusa.
According to the official, more than ten mills operate in Angola producing flour, using imported wheat, with high expenses from the Angolan State, but the problem with wheat flour in the country lies in the distribution of the product.
"If there is no problem with imports, the Government spends thousands to import wheat, if there is no problem with production, we have more than ten mills in the country, and if there are no problems with the production of wheat flour, (then) the problem is in distribution", he pointed out.
"Who gets the wheat flour trucks to the Zaire border?" asked Gilberto Simão, recalling, on the other hand, that at the moment the cost structure in bread production "has increased for everyone".
The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Rui Miguêns de Oliveira, stated last week that the government is creating conditions to avoid a shortage of wheat flour and, consequently, speculation in the price of bread on the national market.
The president of AIPPA also questioned the Government's motivations in stopping the increase in the price of bread within the bakery industry, given the rise in costs, noting that provincial governments do not allow bread to be increased by more than 30 kwanzas.
The proposal presented by AIPAA, approved by the authorities, included an 80-gram loaf priced at 30 kwanzas, recalls the businessman, lamenting the current increase in the cost structure.
"Now the cost structure for making bread has increased: water, electricity, wheat flour increases every day, everything increases and they won't let us increase the price of bread," he said.
He also defended the need for the Government to invest in national production, to immediately replace 20 percent of the wheat flour consumed domestically, and to suspend the re-export of wheat flour.
Gilberto Simão understands that "the export of wheat flour must be prohibited" and a commission created to investigate and monitor the distribution of this product.
"Because if the Government spends money to satisfy the domestic market, it is not to export (...). Every day trucks of wheat pass the border of Zaire (the Angolan province that borders the Democratic Republic of Congo)", he concluded.
