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Bakers protests in Tunisia: Demand subsidized flour to avert closure

August 8, 2023

(4 minutes read)

Tunisian bakers have demonstrated against the withdrawal of food subsidies on flour by resorting to sitting down outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Commerce in Tunis. The step taken by the government, demonstrating bakers, said has resulted in the closure of more than 1,500 of their bakeries

Tunisian bakers have demonstrated against the withdrawal of food subsidies on flour by resorting to sitting down outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Commerce in Tunis. The step taken by the government, demonstrating bakers, has resulted in the closure of more than 1,500 of their bakeries. Subsidized flour was not available to the non-classified bakers since the government withdrawal of food subsidies.

Bakers are determined to continue with the demonstrations and spread them to other parts of the country. The recent demonstration has seen over 200 bakers sitting down before the Ministry of Commerce in Tunis, the capital city, and chanting slogans against the withdrawal of flour subsidies. Demonstrators carried the placard written: “bread, freedom, national dignity,” and “thousands of employees will be laid off”.

In a major development, last week the Ministry of Commerce banned over 1,500 privately-owned bakeries that produced European-style bread and pastries from procuring subsidized flour. The government has been following the practice of distributing subsidized flour to the bakers for more than a decade to help hold bread prices and to ensure it was affordable to the common man. That has caused, bakers allege, disruptions in bread production and supply.

The government at a recent meeting held on July 27, in the presence of President Kaïs Saïed called for doing away with the classification of bakeries into classified and non-classified. He asserted that there was only one bread for all Tunisians. He sternly warned against the selling of unsubsidized bread and its immediate stoppage on the plea that people were selling subsidized flour to the unclassified bakeries. This has led to artificial shortages of bread in the market, he pointed out while adding that ordinary people who would stand in the queue to buy bread from the classified bakeries would not get it even after waiting for several hours, but the bread was available from the non-classified bakeries, a clear cut example of how the distribution of flour has been flawed to help the unclassified bakers, where the bread is priced at 800 milim and a dinar, after adding a few olives or onions. This, he said, meant that there is bread for all; but distribution is skewed to help the rich.

Tunisia has 3,337 classified bakeries. Of that, 270 are not provided with flour due to charges of manipulation, in addition to 1,443 unclassified bakeries. Those who are denied subsidized flour want to have flour at the same price being sold to classified outlets. Beset with a number of problems, Tunisians face a multitude of challenges that affect civic life. Of late, Tunisians have been facing soaring food prices and shortages of basic staples creating widespread discontentment among the people.