As global prices soar, millers tell ‘The National’ that suppliers have no interest in selling to cash-strapped Lebanon
Highlights
- Wheat prices have soared since the start of the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s largest producers.
- Lebanon normally buys 96 per cent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
- Importers are struggling to get dollars from a subsidy programme to buy wheat from new suppliers.
- The cost of the country’s largely imported food increased by 2,076 per cent between 2018 and 2021 due to the crash of the local currency.
- Economy Minister Amin Salam said that the central bank did not have the capacity to subsidise wheat imports at higher prices.
- A loaf of bread now costs on average 10,000 Lebanese pounds, or $0.45 — more than six times what it cost before the onset of the economic crisis in 2019.