Lebanese fear wheat shortage amid Ukrainian crisis
Amid the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, concerns are growing in Lebanon over a shortage of wheat supplies, as the country imports the bulk of its wheat needs from Ukraine.
BEIRUT — Lebanon might be facing a wheat crisis with the onset of the war in Ukraine, as it imports the bulk of its wheat supplies from the eastern European country. Amid the crippling Lebanese economic crisis, people fear the state will be unable to provide the market’s need for wheat to produce bread.
“We are trying to manage a crisis right now, and we have no plans. We only have stocks for about a month and a half,” Geryes Berbari, the Economy Ministry's general director of the grains and sugar beets department, told Al-Monitor. “We are currently looking for an alternative to Ukrainian wheat.”
Berbari noted, “There are several options, including importing wheat from Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries. The good thing is that wheat importers are still able to import, and we will intervene and communicate with countries to secure wheat in order to protect food security.”
The Ministry of Economy has recently formed the Food Security Committee, which is an emergency committee made up of representatives of the concerned authorities, such as mills and bakeries, to discuss alternatives for wheat supplies.
