It’s fantastic to hear that sales of bread, rice, pasta and potatoes are back on the up after years in the doldrums. Hopefully people have stopped seeing carbs as the bad guys, long last! Real Bread Week inspires thousands. Bakeries in Sudan are being guarded by volunteers tasked with preventing corruption. And almost fifty staff at Roberts Bakery are congratulated for their long and loyal service. Here’s what’s been going on in our world recently.

Bread, pasta, rice and spud sales shoot up as carbs regain their good reputation

It’s good to see that sales of bread, pasta and rice are going up for the first time in as very long time. It might even be a hint that consumers have decided carbohydrates are not baddies after all, after years of rejecting carbohydrates in favour of high-fat, high-protein Atkins diets and carb alternatives like courgetti.

If you fancy a good, hearty meal involving artisan bread, rice, pasta or good old spuds, you are not alone. The experts are saying a new-ish trend around looking after your gut – gut health – is behind it all, driving people to seek out reliable sources of fibre.

Waitrose has seen sourdough sales go up by a third over the last three years. Their speciality loaves sales are up 22% over the last three months alone. And apparently the same is happening online as 20% more shoppers search supermarket sites for white loaves online and un-sliced loaf searches shoot up by 450% compared to 2019, an extraordinary increase in anyone’s book. 14% more people are searching for classic sliced loaves and John Lewis’ pasta machine sales are up 80% on 2019.

It actually looks like bread is going mainstream again. Isn’t that brilliant news!

Fighting bakery corruption in Sudan

In Khartoum yellow-vested volunteers are keeping an eye on the city’s bakeries. They’re doing it because flour is being siphoned off onto the black market, which is in turn worsening shortages that have been going on for more than three years so far, leaving the country’s ‘weak’ civilian government struggling.

The guards monitor what goes in and out of the bakeries, including the flour itself and the bread that comes out the other end. They’ve already caught wheat and bread being smuggled out of bakeries in Arkawit. One time an impressive 2000 loaves were stolen and sold for three times the normal price, a crime that saw the culprit get a police warning.

Roberts Bakery commands impressive staff loyalty

As a bakery with a low staff churn ourselves, we know you don’t hang onto your best employees for years and years unless you’re an excellent employer. Well done to the 47 loyal workers at Roberts, who between them have managed to clock up a total of 1000 years working at the family-run bakery. Five employees have worked there for forty years each, and one man has worked there for a full fifty years.

Taste our heavenly artisan breads for free

If you’d like to taste-test our beautiful breads for free, we’ll be delighted to send a sample box to your doorstep. Just ask.