Economy Minister Amin Salam said his ministry will issue new bread bundle prices on Tuesday. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Arabic bread bundles were out of stock in many supermarkets and bakeries on Tuesday, due according to bakery and supermarket owners to low production and panic buying. Meanwhile, Economy Minister Amin Salam denied there was any bread or flour crisis, assuring that new “fair” bread prices will be issued Tuesday evening.
Here’s what we know:
• “We are out of bread because there isn’t enough wheat in the country. We received fewer Arabic bread bundles from suppliers [bakeries] today and the bundles were sold out in the morning,” a supermarket owner in Koraytem told L’Orient Today.
• The supermarket owner added that “people rushed since the morning to buy bread bundles and hoard them as they were informed of possible shortages in wheat,” noting that other types of bread such as oat, protein and tannour are available.
• L’Orient Today contacted one bakery in Zalka, another in Zouk, two in Hamra and two in Saida, all of which confirmed they are out of Arabic bread bundles, but are selling other bread types, including French toast and baguettes.
• Two of the bakeries said they will produce Arabic bread bundles and make them available at night. One noted that it hadn’t received wheat since yesterday.
• Economy Minister Amin Salam said his ministry will issue new bread bundle prices later Tuesday. “There is neither a bread crisis nor a flour crisis,” Salam told the news outlet Al Jadeed, assuring that the new price will be “fair” and the dollar differences will be taken into account.
• On Monday, the lira-to-dollar exchange rate reached a new low, trading for a period more than LL33,000 on the parallel market, before returning to around LL32,500
• However, head of the Bakery Owners Union in Mount Lebanon Antoine Seif announced earlier Tuesday that bread may no longer be available in sufficient quantities in bakeries due to shortages of wheat and flour in the country.
• “We are facing a shortage of wheat reserves in some flour mills because of late payments for imports, especially at the level of the opening of credit lines by the central bank,” Seif told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).
• For his part, the head of the Bakery Owners’ Syndicate, Ali Ibrahim, warned on Monday that “bread will only be sold in bakeries, and will not be distributed to shops, due to a decline in flour quantities.”