KENYA – DPL Festive Bread, one of the leading bakeries in Kenya producing the market dominant Festive brand, has received the Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000) from SGS Kenya.
The bread maker becomes the first bakery in the East Africa region to receive the stringent food safety standards certification, showcasing its commitment to safe handling of its bakery products.
FSSC 22000 provides a framework for certifying and auditing Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS), which meets the Global Food Safety Initiative’s (GFSI) Benchmarking Requirements – the highest food safety standards in the world.
The certification is based on the widely recognized Food Management System Standard ISO 22000, the industry relevant Pre-Requisite Program (PRP) and FSSC defined additional requirements.
In adopting FSSC 22000’s stringent requirements, DPL Festive has implemented the most robust food safety management system for bread and buns production in East Africa.
“FSSC 22000 delivers a framework for food safety management using best practices to ensure consumer safety. DPL Festive places the highest level of importance on the safe handling of food and food-related products. By pursing and achieving FSSC 22000 certification, we are further demonstrating our deep commitment to food safety for our customers” said Jaynish Shah, the company’s CEO.
FSSC 22000 certification requires that providers undertake a thorough analysis of the processes and related hazards to identify food safety risks and implement measures to eliminate those risks, including controls for food defence and food fraud to protect the consumer.
According to SGS, the leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company, the certification helps company’s sell their products with confidence.
Intense competition in bakery sector in Kenya
Kenya’s bakery industry is the most sophisticated in Eastern Africa region, but the sector’s highly fragmented nature, with nearly all the players being family owned businesses, stand in the way of the sector adopting world class technologies and practices. There is intense competition in the baked goods industry in kenya, but only a few players cover some of the country’s most significant towns and cities such as DPL Festive, plus a huge number of small and medium bakers that target local markets where they operate.
DPL Festive, which was founded in 2000, has grown aggressively over the last 20 years to become one of the top bakery goods producers in Kenya. “We believe success comes down to three things — outstanding bread, customer satisfaction and a clean baking environment. It is easy to say, but it takes a strong commitment to consistently execute. Attention to detail, putting our customers’ needs first and a deep desire to be a great company helps make Festive bread food for all occasions,” the bakery notes on its website
Other important players in the bakery sector in Kenya include Mini Bakeries (of the Supa Loaf brand), Broadway Bakery, Kenblest, Fayaz Bakers, United Millers, Kenafric Bakery, Mafuko Industries and many others.
According to Euromonitor, the research company, the bakery industry in Kenya, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the growth of the bakery industry in the country in 2020, as foodservice declined and retail sales growth were constrained due to lower consumer incomes.
The firm however, says that there are opportunities in 2021 and beyond, as foodservice recovers and as urbanisation and disposable incomes rise in the country, while the bakery sector can take advantage of new opportunities to introduce healthier product offerings, as Broadway Bakery has done over the last few years.
“By pursuing and achieving FSSC 22000 certification, we are further demonstrating our deep commitment to food safety for our customers. We assure our customers of food safety in the bread industry.”
Jaynish Shah – DPL Festive Bread CEO
Higher wheat prices lead to bread price rise
Meanwhile, according to reports by Business Daily, the cost of bread has gone up again by between Ksh5 (US$0.047) and Ksh8 (US$0.075) as bakers make a fresh attempt to pass the additional cost in price of wheat to consumers.
A tonne of wheat has risen to Ksh34,240 (US$320) from Ksh25,300 (UUS$236) last year, sparking a rally both on bakers and standard flour.
“Since last year, we have witnessed a significant increase in cost of wheat and this, coupled with high cost of other ingredients has necessitated the price increase on bread,” said Mr Bimal Shah, the managing director of Broadway Group of Companies.
The price had gone up in January by the same margin, but bakers were forced to beat a retreat after getting stiff competition from supermarkets, which maintained a lower cost on their in-house brands.
Bread is a common staple on breakfast tables across the country, meaning that any price increase is keenly felt especially at a time when the cost of milk has also gone up.
Inflation, which is a measure of change in the cost of living, rose to 5.9 per cent in March from 5.78 percent in February, according to statistics agency.
