Why bread and confectionaries business are still dominated by foreign companies

Pastries, unarguably the most popular food in the country is a trending and high profit yielding business. It is very common to see people moving on a busy road and munching bread, doughnut or buns rather than stop over at eateries because it is time and saving, especially in times of economic recession like we have presently.

Roadside traders that fry snacks also make a lot of money; it fills in the gap called unemployment and removes the garment of poverty.

Our correspondents, after a close look at the bread and confectionaries production across the country, revealed that Indians and Lebanese are still dominating the business – 57 years after independence.

Their products are now so popular that Nigerians do not hesitate before patronising them, completely ignoring the existence of local bakeries and their products which abound at every corner.

Foreign companies like Food Concepts that produces Butterfield Bread located at Oregun Lagos, Oasis Bakery located at Aguda Ojodu Lagos, Jadore Cakes located at Magodo also in Lagos have stormed Nigeria and taken over from earlier foreign companies like De Facto, Domino, even AG Leventis (UAC Foods), etc.

Even the once popular Mr. Biggs has had its dominance of eateries dislodged by new entrants.

People buy these foreign breads because they can be kept for a few more days without becoming stale and also because they are popular and more people buy it because of its high quality and nice taste.

A nutritionist and chef at a five-star hotel in Ikeja who spoke to our correspondents in confidence said people buy these breads because of health reasons.

“People are conscious of their health; they want to be sure of the quality and hygienic condition the foods are produced.

Especially because these confectionaries carry NAFDAC number – unlike Agege Bread and those unlicensed local bakeries which do not have NAFDAC number and are usually baked and stored in dirty and rat-infested areas.”

Investigations have also revealed that the local Agege Bread usually have stone and sand particles which may have fallen into it during the production process.

It was discovered that locals who still buy Agege and related breads are those who cannot afford the exorbitant price of the Nigerian-made- foreign breads which prices range from N300 upwards.

The giant loaf – Lion’s Share sells for N4.50 and N500 per loaf.

A market survey of the local breads found that one can buy a loaf for as little a N50 and up to N200.

A home video now trending in the social media shows that government is feeding school children with N50 Agege bread cut into four pieces, confirming that the local “favourite” is for the very poor.

At a rendezvous with a food expert who pleaded anonymity at his office in Lagos, he explained that most of the Indian and Lebanese owned bakeries are well funded and have better equipment which makes people patronise them the more.

His words: “The foreign bakeries we have in Nigeria are standard and have better equipment.

If you want to own a bakery, you need to have enough money for standard and long lasting equipment because if your machines are not good enough, the bread produced cannot be better.

“If you look at this issue from this stand point, you’ll find that most of these local bakeries just wake up one day and decide to open a bakery because of the high yield potential.

They just go to the market, buy flour and other necessary ingredients, build a small mud house that can withstand enough heat, get firewood, a soft drink bottle that can roll bread, some pans and basins and then start baking without even thinking of the implications of their actions.

“Some of them even add excess yeast and bromate so that the dough can rise well and make people think that the bread and this is not hygienic.

Therefore, you can never compare the foreign owned bakeries where they use big machines, multi-million dollar ovens, electricity and standard ingredients to roll out their products.”

He added that the foreign companies also package their products better than the local bakeries and their circulation is also excellent.

“Branding and packaging is what matters most in any manufacturing business because if you package your product well and you place a price tag of five hundred naira even if it is not supposed to be more than two hundred and fifty naira, people will buy it.

“You cannot also compare the circulation of these Nigeria made foreign breads with that of the local ones because they have branches around the country and

also have enough vehicles to transport their products to different parts of the state they are located and this brings us back to the issue of availability of enough funds going into bakery business,” he said.

Government regulations
The food expert said that all companies that deal with eatables are supposed to be properly registered and must have a NAFDAC registration number before going into production, but investigations revealed that most of the local bakeries do not have NAFDAC number for obvious reasons.

“They are afraid of their bakeries being sealed up due to the dirty state of the environment. It is only few of the Nigerian own bakeries like Top Crust Ltd that use big machines and produce standard pastries.”

One other edge foreign bakeries have in Nigeria, our corresponds discovered, is the quality and number of staff they employ.

They have enough personnel to perform each function and they have good working conditions – unlike the local bakeries where a few set of people would be the same ones to mix the dough, put it in pans and when it is baked, transport it to their few customers.

An insider who works who resides and works in a bakery located in his neighbourhood, said that most of the bakeries in Agege are substandard, “Including the one I work in, but the people don’t have a choice because many of them do not have enough money to buy the expensive foreign breads.

“I work in one of the many bakeries scattered around Agege here and our sales are also limited to the little communities around here because no one outside would want to buy our bread.

You cannot expect people around here to go all the way to Ikeja to buy bread at Shoprite when they can easily save their money and buy the one available here.

Also, not everyone has enough money to buy expensive bread because we are in a time in this country when everyone is managing the little they have,” he said.