The Minister of Economy and Trade, Amer Bsat, during a meeting at the ministry, on May 2, 2025. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Economy and Trade Minister Amer Bsat on Friday discussed the framework of a national food security strategy and the potential reconstruction of the Beirut port silos destroyed in the Aug. 4, 2020, explosions.
The meetings included representatives from the World Food Program, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the director of the port silos and the director general of the Office of Cereals and Sugar Beet, according to the state-run National News Agency.
Bsat requested “a strategic study for food security and the reconstruction of the silos,” the NNA reported.
The 2020 blasts destroyed most of the silos that stored Lebanon’s strategic grain reserves. While the official investigation into the explosion remains stalled due to political interference, families of the victims and several civil society groups continue to call for the preservation of the blast site — including the damaged silos — as a memorial honoring the victims.
More than 220 people were killed and 6,500 injured in what is considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
