Queues in front of the nation's bakeries are growing longer by the day. Dena Rashed waits in line for an explanation to the current "bread crisis" It is past one pm on one of Cairo's hottest days and Bamba Ibrahim has been waiting for over three hours to buy bread. She is just one of many people queued up in front of a bakery tucked in an alley of the low-income district of Bayn Al-Sarayat. "It's been like this for over three months now," Ibrahim said in despair. Her daughter came searching for her as the family was worried because she had left the house at 10am. "I'm too old for this," said Ibrahim. To avoid the long hours of waiting, many mothers send their kids to the bakery. But even children are aware of the scale of the crisis. "The bakery workers don't want to sell anybody more than five loaves of bread, and they sell to those who want a few loaves first," nine-year-old Aliaa Mohamed complained. Bakeries like this, which produce baladi (flat) bread, have been overloaded with customers as the size of a fino loaf (the local, somewhat anemic, version of a baguette) has decreased. In contrast to the baladi bakery rush, sales are slow at a fino bakery in the Boulaq Abul-Ela district. "Although the fino bread is great for young kids and school lunches, the sales have slumped," said Salah Abdel-Hamid, the owner. Abdel-Hamid explained that he was forced to bring down the size of his loaves because the price of the '72 per cent' wheat-flour used in baking fino has risen dramatically. Instead of raising the price per loaf, bakeries were left with no other option but to decrease the size. As a result, the weight of a 10-piastre fino loaf fell 33 per cent. "People think it's our fault, but what can we do? The price of a tonne of wheat-flour has increased by LE1000 in only two months," said Abdel-Hamid, adding that a 50 kilogramme sack of wheat-flour costing LE50 three months ago now sells for LE90. Customers have been left with two choices: either buy more fino loaves or buy baladi. The current "bread crisis" has been escalating for weeks. On Sunday, President Hosni Mubarak intervened personally in an attempt to find a quick solution. In a cabinet meeting, the president told his ministers that affordable bread should be made available to all people, especially low-income families. One week before the president's intervention, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said the government would step in and provide subsidised wheat-flour needed to make fino bread. The government has also decided to increase the subsidy for the 82 per cent wheat-flour for baladi bread by 31,000 tonnes per month. Minister of Supply Hassan Khedr announced this week that the government ground 120,000 tonnes of subsidised wheat, which was expected to reach 3,000 bakeries nationwide yesterday. Khedr also added that the government is discussing the prospects of alternate markets, such as Syria, to provide another million to a million and half tonnes of wheat annually. Egypt is one of the largest wheat-importing countries in the world, bringing in between six and seven million tonnes per year -- mostly from the United States -- that covers almost 50 per cent of its needs. Although the government spends LE3 billion on bread subsidies annually, this is the first time in 12 years that the government will be forced to subsidise fino wheat-flour. But Abdallah Ghorab, deputy of the non-governmental Bakeries Chamber, says that for all of the government's concern to date "We hear lots of promises, but we see no action." Ghorab argued that the current crisis is related to the share of wheat-flour the government allocates to bakeries producing baladi bread. He explained that as the fino loaf got smaller, people were forced to buy more to cover their needs. But buying more fino was too expensive, and so people put pressure on baladi bakeries to make up the difference in supply. In Boulaq Abul-Ela, tens of people queue up for bread in front of Medhat Said's baladi bakery. He explained that the cost of baladi bread has not risen because the government controls the price of the 82 per cent wheat-flour used in baking it. A typical bakery like Said's receives, on average, 17 sacks of wheat-flour every month at a subsidised rate from the government. From these 100 kilogramme bags he must produce five-piastre loaves of bread. However, he admits that he tells his workers not to sell any person more than LE1 or LE1.50 worth of bread, believing that if they buy more, others will be left in need. The crunch, according to Said, is compounded by a government order issued several months ago for all baladi bakeries to upgrade from manual to semi-automatic production. As a result many bakeries shut down or are closed for renovation, decreasing the number of bread outlets at a time when demand for baladi is on the rise. With the long queues in front of his shop Said is obviously more relaxed about the bread crises than fino bakery owner Abdel-Hamid. Said, however, is upset that the government did not implement the new subsidies before the academic year began, as promised. "School started five days ago and nothing has been solved," he added.
