Ibadan, Nigeria, May 7 - Hundreds bakers have stopped baking bread after a strike was called by the Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria.
A baker in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state, said the association also may increase the price of bread by around 25% at the end of the one-week strike that began Monday in protest against rising prices for flour and sugar.
He said a 50-kilogram bag of flour is now sold at 6,000 ($51) naira a bag up from 4,000 naira, adding that the prices of sugar and other baking ingredients also have gone up.
"The supply of bread to the market has fallen since Monday. There may be no bread supply before the weekend," the baker said.
Lateef Oguntoyinbo, chairman of the bakers association, said that he had asked the government to reduce or cancel wheat tariffs or subsidize bakers, adding that bakers were in a "big mess and have to embark on this strike."
Bakeries will remain closed for a week, and the association has set up a committee to ensure compliance, another baker said.
Said a third baker in Ibadan: "I am using my last bit of flour to produce bread. After this I will shut down the bakery."
In August 2007, the association went on a similar strike for a week after the prices of flour went up.
Bread is a popular staple for many in rural and urban areas of Nigeria, and the country imports the wheat used by flour mills.
In 1987, Nigeria imposed a total ban on the importation of wheat and the government then asked bakers to use locally grown wheat and cassava to produce bread.
But the ban resulted in the massive smuggling of flour from the neighboring countries of Benin, Togo and Cameroon. The ban was lifted in 1992.
High international wheat prices are believed to be the major cause of the rising price of flour in the local market.