Bread is beyond poor people's reach

The rising price of bread is the strongest blow to Yemeni citizens already struggling with a parallel rise in daily meals' costs, prompted by looming price of wheat, rice and gas cylinders.

Recently, the weight of a loaf of bread has get smaller, as one kilo of bread may cost 250 YR in a country where over 45 percent of the rural population live under the poverty line on less than US$1 a day, and Over 40 percent of the country's 19.7 million people struggle to live on less than US$2 per day, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

"Yemeni government imposes high tax on wheat importers, and wheat's cultivation is rare. This is what caused wheat prices to come up. Further, senior wheat importers are not rivaled by others and fix the price they want", said a shopkeeper and restaurant owner Faris Haider Barakat.

Citizens now complain that bakers cheat and play with the weight of bread loaf and narrate numerous stories on the undersized bread loaf which is as small as 40g, accusing the government of negligence and complacency with bakery owners.

"Though they doubled their prices of bread loafs, they are still playing with weight," hinted Ali Abdulmalik adding," the concerned authorities are to blame because they send no inspectors to observe the situation and prevent bakers from cheating."

In return, bakers complain they can no more absorb the looming increase of wheat flour prices without passing this effect onto the consumers. If forced to shut down, they warned that numerous jobs could be lost.

Hafid Ahmed Ali, 27, believes that bakers are the right angle for any increase in wheat prices, hinting the prices doubled just within three months and the bread loaf sold against YR 5 is sold now at 10, but with a smaller size.

According to several people, the average consumption of a family comprising seven to ten members is something between 70 to 100 kg sacks of wheat a month.

"Every month I have to buy two sacks of wheat ", said a 43 year old rural resident Tawffeek Ahmed Saleh who supports eight family members: a wife, three daughters, and three sons.

Several people hold that the government is to blame for the current wheat crisis, noting it depends on others to secure food for the hungry mouths in the country. They also stress those justifications of Trade Ministry's officials as to turning wide fields meant for wheat cultivation turned to be corn fields are not rational, because the world increase is estimated at 13 percent while it is 100 to 150 percent in Yemen.

When the prices of wheat flour rose, locals in the rural areas turned to corn and other cereals; however, the continuous drought is to blame for fluctuations in crops production. Some parts of Yemen saw a very hard season last year yielding nothing and causing the prices of cereals especially corn – an important component in the meals of rural areas’ residents – to rise markedly.

Last November, World Food Program attributed the increase of wheat prices to alarming increase of oil prices together with US farmers turning to bi-fuel crops, bad weather and the growing demand by India and China. in the same year, WFP provided food assistance to 20,000 internally displaced citizens in Saa’da. A three-month emergency operation started in September 2007 to assist 36,000 people with 2,442 metric tons of food at a total cost of D$1.7 million

Still, poor people receiving donations by the Social Welfare Fund (SWF) assure they can not cover up for the wheat, let alone other household demands. On average, the family receives maximally YR 2,000 per month.

"Because of the rising wheat prices, poverty deepens and poor people now suffer more than before," lamented a 53 year old Mohamed Ali Ahmed, who receives YR 2,000 in monthly aid from SWF.