Bakers under the umbrella of Premium Breadmakers Association of Nigeria (PBAN) are threatening a total shutdown of operations, following incessant hikes in the price of diesel in the past few days.

Emmanuel Onuorah, PBAN President made this known on Monday.

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According to him in an interview with PUNCH, the continued rise in the price of diesel had made the price of the commodity to be doubled,warning that a total shutdown of operations by bread-makers was imminent.

The current hikes are making production of bread difficult for its members in the country.

He said, “This country may collapse on everybody. Industries will shut down operations,and all of us will go down. Imagine the price of diesel going towards N850/litre.”

“Remember, I said wheat is not the problem, and that it is energy that will be the major problem in this Russian-Ukraine war. Almost N850 for a litre of diesel,and they are still increasing it every day.

“Is it that marketers just brought in this product and this is why they are increasing the price by the day? Our businesses will just begin to shut down one after the other. That’s what I’m contemplating doing now. I will shut down all the bakeries.

“Diesel is what we use in running our generators, diesel is what we use in running our oven. What we were buying N350 is now about N850 in less than a week.”

He therefore called on the Federal Government to quickly intervene on the lingering crisis to avoid a shutdown of operations by its members.

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