The hike in flour prices and the shortage of flour has led to a fabricated bread crisis, according to many officials.
But reality tells us that even if the problem were fictitious then there still exists in the country bakeries that are closing down, others selling a limited number of bread loafs to each buyer and some that decreased the bread loaf weight and the number of loafs per riyal.
I still know of housewives saving bread loafs in the freezer.
The situation is serious and not just a fabricated problem. The consumer doesn’t really care what happens behind the scenes.
What matters is the bottom line: the price and availability of bread.
The Kingdom has never experienced a bread crisis. We’ve never seen long queues of people lining up in front of bakeries.
Anyone who has ever lived in this country would testify that the price of bread here is totally different than what they find in their countries.
For one Saudi riyal an entire family could have enough bread to eat for a day or two.
So what is happening? How did the bakery join the projects that fail and close down?
It’s well known that the main meal for the Saudi population is rice. So the minute everyone felt the rice price hike they felt the need for immediate action. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s initiative also helped lessen the fear and tension. But bread was the safe zone that no one ever thought would be endangered.
But now the situation is totally different. And people’s fear and worry that had them buying huge amounts of bread to store created even a worse problem than the fabricated one.
I don’t know who is truly to blame and I don’t want to delve into who caused all of this. There are supposed to be official bodies that investigate and chase the wrongdoers and change everything back to its normal situation.
What I would like to ascertain is whether the bread crisis has a message between the lines that there is a long list of food supplies on the way to experiencing the same?
Would the list contain only food supplies or would it extend to cars, perfumes, cleaning products, clothes, electrical appliances, etc? Do crisis creators have a list? Why not if the responsible officials aren’t moving until a problem happens.
The flour-and-bread crisis isn’t just a wake-up call. There is a red line here.
