Protesters and workers from the Union of Bakers block the road in front of the Serail in Tripoli. (Courtesy of Michel Hallak/L'Orient-Le Jour).
BEIRUT — Workers from the Union of Bakeries Thursday morning blocked the road in front of the Serail in Tripoli, North Lebanon, to protest flour shortages while the union in the South warned that merchants are selling expired flour, L’Orient Today’s correspondent reported, as well as the state-run National News Agency.
Here’s what we know:
• Impacted by Lebanon’s severe socio-economic and financial collapse and by shortages in grain imports from Ukraine, food security in the country has been under threat.
• Earlier this month, the Union of Bakeries had warned that "the quantity of wheat stored in the mills is not enough for more than 20 days,” while a significant number of mills are still not operational due to the delay in payment of wheat imports by the central bank.
• These claims were challenged by the caretaker Economy Minister, Amin Salam, who had said eight days ago that "the wheat stock is enough for more than twenty days,” without being more specific. "The [bakery] which has a problem with its reserves is the one responsible for it,” he had added, in a criticism against some flour mills. He had also indicated that "credit lines have been opened this week for four shipments — This means that we have more than 35,000 tons of wheat –– there is no need to panic,” he insisted.
• According to the NNA, the Union of Bakeries in the South called on officials to "refund the subsidy on the flour allotted to them,” the union said in a statement. The union added that “after lifting the subsidy on the flour allocated to us, we started buying subsidized flour intended for Arabic bread from merchants and mills at the parallel market rate, and the surprise was that there are mills that have been closed for a while and are still selling flour that has been stored for months and bears expired dates or bags that do not bear any mark or brand.”
• The union warned "all small bakeries not to buy these goods because they have been exposed to moisture and damage," calling on the concerned authorities, the Prime Minister, the Economy Minister, the Health Ministry and the security services "to handle this file."
• On May 6, the World Bank approved an emergency loan of $150 million to finance wheat imports, but the laws governing this agreement have yet to be passed by the newly elected parliament.