Lebanese fear shortage of bread after port tragedy - France 24

Beirut (AFP)

Wheat spills out of shattered silos, mixing with soot, debris and cement: the explosion at the port of Beirut has hit Lebanon's largest grain silos, causing panic among the population who fear a shortage of bread.

The destruction of the port of the capital further restricted access to food for a population which imports 85% of its food needs, including the wheat necessary for the production of bread cakes, essential for every Lebanese meal and sold today. hui at the subsidized price of 2,000 Lebanese pounds (1.2 euros) per package of 900 grams.

“When we saw the silos, we panicked,” admits Ghassan Bou Habib, CEO of the Wooden Bakery chain.

Some 15,000 tonnes of wheat, corn and barley stored in the imposing, 55-year-old silos were thrown by the explosion and a nearby flour mill was destroyed.

Both bakeries and consumers fear that the destruction of the silos, with a capacity of 120,000 tonnes, could worsen a possible shortage of wheat.

A liquidity crisis since the fall has reduced imports as banks halted transfers abroad.

Container activity had already fallen by 45% in the first half of 2020 compared to last year, according to Blominvest Bank, while the rapid devaluation of the Lebanese pound has caused prices to skyrocket.

"We were already having difficulties with the little flour and wheat available," says Ghassan Bou Habib. "The flour mills either did not have enough or did not have fuel to operate," he says.

- "We don't eat steak" -

Even before the explosion, the 50 branches of the Wooden Bakery chain received only two-thirds of the 70 tonnes of daily flour needed.

"Now our central kitchen does not produce enough to fill the shelves", says Mr. Bou Habib.

In the aftermath of the explosion, panicked customers flocked by the hundreds to the Capuchins bakery in the Hamra shopping district.

"We sold everything. Everyone was buying five packs of bread instead of just one, in case there was a shortage," said an employee, Haïdar Moussaoui.

"Bread is the only thing that can satisfy the poor: we are not sitting eating a steak with a fork and a knife," he told AFP.

Officials have tried to allay Lebanese fears, saying the country has sufficient stocks of wheat for a month and that new shipments will arrive this week through the ports of Tripoli in the north and Saida in the south.

But silos are lacking, notes Moussa Khoury, an agricultural entrepreneur who managed Beirut's grain storage from 2014 to 2017.

"Nothing compares to the port of Beirut, where grain was unloaded from ships or removed from silos 24 hours a day," he adds, predicting "huge problems" in the coming months.

"The ports of Tripoli and Saïda are smaller, which means that unloading will be longer and more expensive" and could affect the price of bread, he adds.

Flour mill owners have already calculated that transporting wheat by truck from Tripoli, 80 km north of Beirut, would cost an additional $ 6 per tonne, says Arslan Sinno, president of Dora Mills.

"Who will pay? Us?" He asks bitterly.

- "The icing on the cake

Arslan Sinno told AFP that stocks in silos and flour mills were already down due to delays in payments from the Central Bank to foreign suppliers.

“Other vendors may not want to come anymore due to security concerns,” he adds.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) also sounded the alarm after the explosion in Beirut, saying on Wednesday they feared "in the short term, a problem of availability of flour".

For months, initiatives like that of the Lebanese Food Bank have distributed rations to families in need, including bread donated by some of the flour mills and bakeries now hit hard.

Since the explosion on Tuesday, volunteers from the Lebanese Food Bank (LFB) have been on deck, distributing sandwiches and meals to families whose homes were damaged, said Souha Zeaiter, its executive director.

But even his initiative can be affected.

A bakery that gave LFB 500 packs of bread a day before the tragedy warned it could not give more due to the shortage of flour.

"We were already facing the Covid-19 and the economic crisis, and then this disaster happened," Souhai Zeaiter told AFP. "It was the icing on the cake".

© 2020 AFP