Bakeries stop working in Sfax, Tunisia

The Chairman of the Bakeries Chamber in the Tunisian governorate of Sfax Jamal Al- Ammouri has said that more than 100 bakeries stopped working on Thursday and nearly 100 more are preparing to close due to the depletion of flour stocks- a result of a flour mill strike.

Al- Ammouri said in remarks to Anadolu news agency that the strike has hurt the 280 bakeries operating in Sfax. The governorate is standing on the brink of a disaster if the government fails to reach an agreement with the mills owners, he said.

The three mills in Sfax have been on strike since the beginning of September due to a shortage of baking materials.

Ghazi Kammon, a local resident, said that he has been unable to buy bread for the past few days as a result of the strike.

Meanwhile, Sami Allouz, a mill owner, stated: “the National Chamber of Mills has reached an agreement with the Economy and Finance Ministries and the Office of Grains and the production of flour will be resumed.”

Bakery owners and citizens are demanding the Tunisian government addresses the issue fully in-order to ensure that the crisis will not be repeated.

Bakery owner, Said Maazoun, said: “the government must find a radical solution because the ordinary citizen is the one who suffers as result of these strikes.”

There are nearly three thousand bakeries in Tunisia, according to Muhammad Buanan, president of the National Chamber of Bakeries.

Buanan said: “The number of unauthorized bakeries is estimated at 800 bakeries and we are surprised at the government’s silence towards them.”

“As a national chamber, we call on the government to investigate the issues of unauthorized bakeries which consume flour illegally and cause severe shortage in the production material and damages the businesses of authorized bakeries,” he added.