Workers prepare bread in a bakery in Beirut on March 10, 2022. (Credit: AFP/File)
BEIRUT — Lebanon's Economy Ministry raised bread prices on Thursday for the second time within 48 hours, as the Lebanese lira continued its steep depreciation against the dollar amid a now three-year-old financial collapse in the country.
According to the new tariffs published by the Economy Ministry, small Lebanese bread packages, weighing 341 grams, will be sold for LL14,000 starting Friday, compared to the previous price of LL13,000 for a 346-gram package, which was set on Tuesday. Medium packages of 838 grams will now cost LL24,000, against LL22,000 previously for the same weight. Large packages will now weigh 1,052 grams and will be sold at LL29,000, against LL26,000 for 1,040 grams previously.
In a statement, the ministry said that it is now essential to obtain prior approval from its Cereals and Sugar Beets Department to import wheat "to protect the national industrial sector and its workers." This decision comes after the lifting of subsidies on certain types of wheat (extra, super extra, zero and local wheat), which led traders to import large quantities of the commodity.
On Tuesday, the ministry justified an initial beard price increase by citing various factors, including the rise in fuel prices after the lifting of subsidies on gasoline, the dollar rate on the parallel market, which continues to soar, and the increased international world wheat prices, which have risen since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022.