Agriculture & Food

In recent years, Lebanon has been struggling in a turbulent political situation, and the national economy has also been severely hit. This not only caused the residents of Lebanon to suffer from a shortage of medicines and fuel, but now they are facing a crisis of food shortages because of a lack of electricity and flour.

Lebanon has a severe shortage of supplies

A few days ago, people lined up in front of a bakery on the outskirts of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The small shop was surrounded by dozens of people.

Although the weather is unbearably hot right now, some people have been waiting here since 3 o'clock in the morning.

Today, some areas of Lebanon have power outages for about 20 hours a day, and the price of fuel for private generators continues to rise. The bakeries are unable to obtain sufficient fuel, and many shops are forced to close.

Although bakeries can obtain government-subsidized flour, in order to be able to maintain it for a longer period of time, those bakeries that are still open have also implemented quantitative production.

Curry, the owner of a bakery in Beirut, Lebanon: We are the only bakery open here. The large bakery no longer supplies bread here. Our output is very small and the pressure is all on us.

We can only get 36 tons of government-subsidized flour per month. If this dilemma continues, we cannot survive a week. I don’t know what to do.

Regarding the current shortage of resources, the Lebanese government and enterprises have their own opinions.

Importers blamed the shortage of supplies on the government’s delay in opening up import credit lines, and the government accused distributors of hoarding and trying to sell them on the black market or on the border with Syria at higher prices.

Food prices are rising

According to United Nations data, food prices in Lebanon have risen by 400% in the past two years.

According to the World Bank, among the total population of more than 6 million, at least 78% of Lebanese live below the poverty line, and companies can hardly make ends meet. The price has depreciated by more than 90%.