Mumbai’s vada-pav may become a tad costlier and Nagpur’s bread-omelette may not remain a quick roadside meal either.
With UP closing down two major suppliers, bakeries face closure
NAGPUR: Mumbai’s vada-pav may become a tad costlier and Nagpur’s bread-omelette may not remain a quick roadside meal either. With an unprecedented shortage of yeast in the country, many small and big bakeries are on the brink of
closing down.
With the Mayawati-led government ordering closure two of India’s three major yeast supplying units in Uttar Pradesh for violating pollution norms last month, nearly 500 small and big bakeries in Nagpur alone arefacing closure.
Kothari Yeast Company in Bulandshahar and Saif Yeast in Sandila—both in UP—have stopped production following the order. Together, the two were the lifelines of the country’s bakery industry—one of the largest in the food sector in India with an annual turnover of Rs4,000 crore. The only one operational is at Chiplun in coastal Maharashtra. A fourth, smaller unit, Mauri Yeast Company, caters to parts of north India. In what seems to be worst crisis ever to have hit the industry, 70 % of the small bakeries are already sick and about 10,000 workers face unemployment.
Nagpur’s leading bakers say consumers would have to prefer cake over bread in the next few days, if the situation remains bleak and yeast supply isn’t restored.
“It has become difficult to make ends meet,” Vikram Diwadkar, owner of Nagpur-based Ajit Bakery, told DNA on Friday. “Our production has come down to 80 % and will dwindle over the next few days if the situation remains bleak.” There are reports of bread and bun being sold in black-market at much higher prices. Tulsi Gidwani, owner of the small-scale Jai Bakery, said, “The problem is quite serious as the yeast prices are sky-rocketing.”
Already, the bread and bun prices are rising in the entire state. So are the prices of yeast, which is also being black-marketed. For a country whose per capita consumption of bread is 2 kg per annum, the shortage could well mean that the daily loaf of bread is a luxury with the morning cup of tea.
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