Caretaker Economy and Trade Minister Amin Salam (center), during a meeting with syndicate representatives on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT – Caretaker Economy and Trade Minister Amin Salam held an emergency meeting on Wednesday with representatives from the supermarkets, food importers, poultry and meat syndicates as well as the syndicate of food industrialists to discuss the increase in prices of food products across the Lebanese market and debunk the ongoing rumors regarding food shortages in light of the threat of full-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The Israeli air force struck Haret Hreik, located in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Tuesday evening, marking an unprecedented escalation in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah since its onset on Oct. 8, as they looked to kill Fouad Shukur, one of the most senior military leaders in Hezbollah. While Israel claims to have killed him, Hezbollah has stated that they do not have any information on the condition of the military leader other than that he was in the building when it was targeted.
As the threat of war looms, “we started seeing patterns of panic-buying and food stockpiling across Lebanese supermarkets and outlets,” said Salam.
He, however, stressed that there is no need to engage in unnecessary stockpiling. “There are no food shortages nor any food crisis on the market today, and we have enough food reserves to last for the next 3 to 4 months to come.”
The minister also confirmed that import and export activities were still fully operational and new orders are still getting placed today, not counting the orders scheduled to be placed next week. “Ships carrying flour, wheat, meat, and chicken – amongst other things – are still reaching the country, and more are expected to reach Lebanon’s coast in the coming weeks,” he noted.
“The only fear we have is that our sea or airways get hit in the event of a full escalation, in which case it would become logistically impossible to unload containers and receive orders,” he warned. “Then we would have a real problem because our borders with Syria are also still unstable and unsafe in terms of transit activity.”
But Salam said the caretaker government is working on a contingency plan to address the worst-case scenarios.
Without specifying the time frame, Salam also discussed the several factors driving prices to increase on the market, citing namely: Global inflation, the increase in costs of shipping in light of the disruptions across the Red Sea, the increase in insurance premiums to deliver orders to Lebanon (and which proved to be one of the biggest factors according to ministry findings), and finally the new taxes levied through the country’s budget for 2024, which put further pressure on prices of commodities.
To protect consumers against random and discriminatory pricing in the market, the minister announced at the end of the session that “the ministry was releasing a report next week, in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), comparing the prices of around 75 basic necessity products across all Lebanon Governorates.” This should allow people to keep track of prices and keep food sellers across the market in check, he added.