Lebanon economy minister denies that garbage crisis will lead to bread crisis

Economy Minister Alain Hakim downplayed fears  of a bread crisis Wednesday after fears of trash pollution led one of the country’s largest flour mills to suspend operations.

“We’re closed. We’re not producing anything today,” a man representing Bakalian Flour Mills was quoted as saying  by the The Daily Star, outside the company’s Beirut port facility.

He said trucks had dumped mounds of garbage behind a concrete wall across the street.

Bakalian’s general manager, Patricia Bakalian, had previously threatened to shut down the facility if trash continued to be dumped there. “We will close tomorrow [Wednesday] if trash was emptied overnight in the truck parking lot in Beirut port,” Bakalian said in comments to a local newspaper.

The closure drew fears of a bread shortage in the markets, but Economy Minister Alain Hakim said in a statement Wednesday thatLebanon faced “no bread crisis.”

Hakim said he spoke with Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib, who promised to remove the offending waste. Chebib was not available for comment.

Public truck owners and Bakalian employees held a sit-in Tuesday in Beirut port to protest Chebib’s decision to allow truck driver contractor Jihad al-Arab to empty garbage in the port’s truck parking area.