Caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam on Friday, declared that the bread crisis that had been raging across the country for several weeks, producing shortages and queues in front of bakeries, had come to an end.

Salam’s claim came after the joint commission on food security at the Grand Serail that was presided over by interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

“This commission was established ten days ago with the responsibility of establishing a system to track the amounts of wheat and flour in the nation from the docking of ships at the country's ports to the sale of bread in bakeries,” Salam said.

He claimed that the mechanism had achieved its goal and credited the ministry's partners' tireless work for putting an end to the situation.

“A similar system could be implemented in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture to promote Lebanese farmers to grow barley and wheat," the minister added.

He stated that this system would entail guaranteeing that the mills of the nation would buy these local products up to approximately 40,000 tons.

“To maintain the nation's food security, the government really had a scheme whereby it would purchase wheat from local farmers, however, the program was canceled in 2019,” he clarified while pointing out that the cabinet must first convene before deciding on such a method.

The minister concluded that the $150 million World Bank loan should be put into effect "within a month" in a bid to guarantee wheat imports to Lebanon for the upcoming "six to nine" months.