The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Local Consumption organized, on Friday July 8, 2022, in Lomé, an awareness day on the effectiveness of the use of local flours in the manufacture of bread. Open to bakers and pastry chefs, the initiative aims to encourage local consumption and address the shortage of wheat flour on the market. It is also a matter of promoting agricultural development, a source of job creation and poverty reduction.
Following the day of tasting breads made from local products organized last Thursday in Lomé, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption met, on Friday, the actors of the bakery to raise their awareness of the urgency of using local bread-making flours in bread making. It is a way of anticipating and enabling bread producers to cope with the shortage of wheat flour which is increasing day by day with the war in Ukraine.
According to the panelists, the situation is serious and if nothing is done, the situation risks becoming catastrophic with the growing rise in the prices of certain raw materials on the market. To avoid unpleasant surprises, bakery players are urged to find substitutes for wheat flour and to incorporate bread flours derived from cassava, sorghum, soybeans and others, in the manufacture of their products. This new technique will allow the country to depend less on wheat and to develop local product value chains. This will help create jobs and more income for producers, with a much greater impact on the country’s economic growth. The meeting therefore made it possible to inform bakers and pastry chefs about the measures that are being taken at the level of the ministry, to facilitate the availability of local bread-making flours and to ensure the training of bakery actors throughout the of the territory.
According to Ms. Kossiwa Amouzou-Djaka, an agro-food engineer, Togo is the first country to start using bread flour and to train people throughout West Africa. But this technique is struggling to settle into habits because of the reluctance of some bakers who doubt its effectiveness and its advantages. ” We have to get up early and start using these flours and boost production in the fields that will provide the raw material to make the bread. “, she confided. According to Ms. Amouzou-Djaka, the substitution will be made by incorporating into the wheat flour, local flours that lack gluten, an essential element in the manufacture of bread.
For his part, the cook-pastry chef Hova Kodjovi Séméha, welcomed the government’s initiative which encourages them to use local bread-making flours, in order to avoid the inconvenience associated with the purchase of wheat flour. In addition, this technique will help fight poverty and promote the country’s development, he added.
Patouani BATCHA