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The Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) this week closed 12 manufacturing companies in Blantyre for failing to comply with hygiene standards.
Seven of the firms netted under the exercise which was carried out on Monday and Tuesday, are bread and confectionary manufacturers.
The bakeries include Chitawira Bakery, Highway Bakers, Kachere Bakeries in Chilobwe and Ndirande, Mac Bakes Bakery, Munchies Bakery and KAR Industries.
The remaining comprise recently privatised meat and meat products producer S&A; Cold Storage, Bubble Freezes Industries, Commodity Processors, Fadamz Rice Milling Company and Royale Chemicals.
“Most of the units [were] closed for operating [without complying] with Malawi standards on products and hygiene. Some were closed for refusing MBS’s inspection,” said the bureau’s quality monitoring services manager Patrician Kondowe.
There are fears that the bakeries closures could lead to shortage of bread on the market.
But spot checks in major supermarkets in Blantyre like People’s, Shoprite, BP Shops and hawkers in such townships as Zingwangwa and Manja showed that bread was available.
Master Bakers Association of Malawi chairman Robin Alufandika said yesterday the bakeries would try to quickly address the shortfalls so that they open and return to full production in the shortest time possible.
Asked whether the sealing of bakeries could bring a shortage on the market, Alufandika said he would rather not talk about that.
But he said since the first week of January, the industry saw the demand for bread shooting up. Alufandika claimed that the shortage of maize is forcing people to depend on bread, thereby raising the demand.
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