Agriculture minister says BDL should open credits for wheat imports today

BEIRUT — Lebanese Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan said on Tuesday that Banque du Liban should “open the necessary credits for wheat imports today,” as bread shortages are imminent.

Here’s what we know:

    • “Following the efforts that have been made, the BDL should open the necessary credits today for wheat imports so that ships loaded with this merchandise can dock at the Port of Beirut, which would allow things to return to normal gradually,” said the minister in an interview with local radio station Voice of Lebanon. He also denied that the central bank opens credits occasionally by borrowing from the government.

    • Hassan ruled out any “orientation towards a lifting of subsidies on flour,” saying “that nobody wants to do it, at least in the short term.” He also announced that cabinet will hold a meeting “in the next few hours” with a “loaded agenda.

   • The president of the Bakery Owners’ Syndicate, Ali Ibrahim, told L'Orient Today on Monday “will be the last day to produce bread or distribute flour if the necessary funds are not secured [by the BDL] for import wheat.”