A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

THE

GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY

OF SOUTH AFRICA – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

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extraction rate (at least 90%), which meant that more loaves could be baked from

a given amount of wheat. It was coarser and darker than the traditional brown and

whole-wheat bread, and for the next seven years it was the only bread available in

South Africa.

Many South Africans were extremely dissatisfied with this state of affairs, particu-

larly those who opposed South Africa’s involvement in the Second World War. To

make matters worse, after the end of the war the South African government, on the

recommendation of the British Ministry of Food, introduced further restrictions on

the consumption of bread and other wheat products because of enormous short-

ages of wheat, like other types of grain, worldwide.

The production of flour used for baking biscuits and cake was totally prohibited,

even in private households. Hotels were forbidden to serve toast and the

daily individual purchase of bread and wheat meal was restricted to eight

ounces (0,226 kg) of bread and six ounces (0,170 kg) of wheat meal/individual

per day.

Consumers were encouraged in the press, on the radio and in films to reduce the

consumption of bread, and by the end of 1946 the sale of bread was prohibited

on Wednesdays and between 15:00 and 16:00 on other days. Wheat consump-

tion consequently stayed low in this period and only started increasing again after

the National Party came into power in 1948. History teaches us that the National

Party’s pre-election promise that they would ensure that bread, particularly white

bread, would be supplied at affordable prices played quite an important role in the

party’s victory in the 1948 elections.

Since the 1920s various investigations into malnutrition had been launched in

South Africa, and by 1948 reasonable concern existed about this, particularly

among poor whites and increasing numbers of urban blacks. Apart from the hu-

manitarian aspect, it was believed to contribute to diseases like tuberculosis.

The Minister of Health at the time, Dr Karl Bremer, was serious about trying to

find solutions to combat malnutrition. As part of his attempts to address the

problem he introduced a national bread enrichment scheme, which involved

certain nutrients (groundnut meal, powdered buttermilk, powdered skim milk

and calcium carbonate) being mixed into brown-bread flour at the govern-

ment’s expense to increase its nutritional value.

The bread was known as the Bremer loaf and was subsidised by the government

so that it could be sold at a lower price than ordinary brown bread.

All restrictions on the sale of bread and other wheat products were lifted on

1 November 1948. This led to an enormous increase in the demand for those

products, and in 1948/1949 about 600 000 tons of wheat were consumed,

compared to the average use of 400 000 tons/annum over the previous twelve

years.

Baking and milling industries

The baking industry was also subject to control measures that were introduced

to ensure stability, promote efficiency through economies of scale and optimum

capacity utilisation, and keep the price of bread affordable. This followed a rec-

ommendation by the Trade and Industries Board in 1939 that the Wheat Board

implement restrictive registration for millers and bakers.

This policy on registration was continually adjusted in accordance with changing

circumstances in subsequent years. One of the consequences was that a concen-

tration of power developed in the baking industry. The number of registered bak-

ers decreased from 200 in 1941 to only 104 in 1971. By 1985 six bakery groups

jointly baked about 90% of South Africa’s bread.

This concentration of power probably contributed to a commission of enquiry into

the Marketing Act (the Wentzel Commission) that was appointed in 1976. Although

the commission’s report supported the continuation of the Marketing Act, it did

mention the concerning side effects of the Marketing Act on the wheat industry,

and on the Wheat Board’s power to limit the number of bakers and millers.

THE WAR LOAVES WERE

SOLD FOR SIX PENNIES,

AND ACCORDING TO

WHEAT BOARD STATISTICS,

AN AVERAGE OF 300

MILLION LOAVES/YEAR

WAS SOLD DURING THE

SEVEN YEARS FROM

1941 TO 1948.