As reported on Monday morning, a Ukrainian cargo ship departed from the port of Odessa. It goes to Lebanon with more than 25,000 tons of maize. There, people are currently queuing for hours in front of bakeries to get bread. The reason is the rationed quantities due to supply bottlenecks in grain.
“I waited three hours today, two and a half hours yesterday to get a bag of bread,” said 48-year-old Chalid Mansur in front of a bakery in Beirat, Lebanon. “I have to feed my children, what should I do?” Currently the official price for six packs of round flat bread is 13,000 Lebanese pounds (8.37 euros), on the black market more than 30,000 Lebanese pounds (19.32 euros) is required for Chalid earns about 50 euros per month as a pastry chef and can so don’t buy bread on the black market.
Customers come with guns and knives
The downside of the bakeries is that queues in Lebanon have been getting longer and longer over the past two weeks. There, the state-subsidized bread is rationed because of a shortage of grain. Before the war started, 80 percent of Ukraine’s wheat was imported. “Queues have been the order of the day for more than two weeks,” said Mohamed Mehdi, owner of a bakery in Beirut. The same goes for quarrels. Some customers even came with guns and knives. Last week, even the army in the east of the country had to intervene after an angry mob stormed a bakery.
Lebanon has been battling an economic crisis since 2019 and the national currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value. 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The Lebanese Ministry of Economy has accused bakeries of hoarding subsidized flour. The bakeries in turn accuse the central bank of insufficient credit for imports.
16 more ships are ready
On Monday, the ship “Razoni” with corn departed from Ukraine. It will reportedly be in Istanbul around 3pm local time (2pm CEST) where it will be inspected. Then it continues to Lebanon, where the ship is checked again. “Today, Ukraine, together with its partners, is taking an important step to prevent world hunger,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Monday. 16 other ships would now be waiting to be able to unload as well.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
