Industry Minister: Vegetable oil supply will last two and a half months

BEIRUT — Industry Minister George Bouchikian said Thursday during a televised interview that Lebanon’s “stock of vegetable oil is enough for two or two and a half months,” at a time when food security in the country is threatened following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Here’s what we know:

    • Bouchikian also noted that “sunflowers have been planted in order to produce oil,” indicating that he had also “stopped the loading of a cargo of 7,300 gallons of vegetable oil at the port of Beirut for foreign destinations.”

    • The minister has in fact banned, since last week, the export of food products made in Lebanon without an export license issued by the ministry, a measure aimed at protecting the country's food security.

    • He announced that Lebanon was looking for new sources from which to import sugar, after Algeria stopped doing so due to its own concerns about how the war in Ukraine will affect its food security.

    • Officials are working to provide substitutes for products imported from abroad. According to a memo published by Farid Belhadj, World Bank vice-president for the Middle East and North Africa region, Lebanon imports more than 90% of its grains from Russia and Ukraine. The country has only about one month's supply.