Flour distributors in the south blamed a piecemeal government wheat subsidy policy for giving birth to a black market for flour, which has resulted in shortages in the regular market.

Here’s what we know:

    • “We have entered our third week of being suspended from work, because the mills we deal with have stopped providing us with flour due to the lack of subsidized wheat,” Ali Rammal, a member of the association of flour distributors in the south, said in a statement, as reported by the National News Agency.

    • Rammal said the partial wheat subsidy — which applies only to the wheat used for Arabic bread, not for other baked goods — had given rise to a rampant black market in flour, pushing the price of bread up.

    • The war in Ukraine has led to concerns about Lebanon’s wheat supply. At the beginning of this month, the Union of Bakeries had warned that "the quantity of wheat stored in the mills is not enough for more than 20 days,” saying that many mills were not operating due to a delay in payment of wheat imports by the central bank.

    • Economy Minister, Amin Salam, for his part, asserted that "the wheat stock is enough for more than twenty days,” without being more specific.

    • Last month, the World Bank’s board of directors approved an emergency loan of $150 million to Lebanon for wheat purchases, but the loan has not yet taken effect because Parliament still has not ratified the agreement.

    • The World Bank program also includes a component of ““consultancy services and technical assistance that will strengthen [the Economy Ministry’s] oversight function as well as capacity to manage the gradual transition from the current wheat subsidy system to a more market-oriented system.”