Price of bread skyrockets in Lebanon

Beirut-

The Minister of Economy Amin Salam decided to raise the price of bread as follows :

Retail price of a small -sized pack 380 grams ( 13.4 oz) 5000 LL

Retail price of a medium-sized pack 810 grams ( 28.5 oz) 7000 LL

Retail price of a a large -sized pack 1200 grams ( 42.3 oz) 9500 LL

Wholesale price to distributors of a small -sized pack 380 grams ( 13.4 oz) 3560 LL

Wholesale price of a medium-sized pack 810 grams ( 28.5 oz) 5300 LL

Wholesale price of a medium-sized pack 1200 grams ( 28.5 oz) 7800 LL

The Minister of Economy also decided to form a crisis cell to keep pace with the development of price fluctuations in the costs of bread and work to keep it within the reach of the Lebanese. The cell meetings remain open for this purpose.

The small and medium packs are a new idea in Lebanon. The pack was always 1000 Gram or one kg and prior to the October 17, 2019 it used to sell retail at 1500 Lebanese Lira ( LL) which is equivalent to 1800LL for the 1200 gram pack.

Hence the new prices represent an increase of over 520% over the 2019 prices

The increase is primarily because the Lebanese pound collapsed since 2019 and lost over 90 % of its value but the wages remained the same at best and many people lost their jobs since or left the country

Lebanon Central Bank has been subsidizing the wheat flour , medicine and fuel but Hezbollah has been smuggling these commodities to Syria through illegal border points , making huge profits resulting in shortages in Lebanon which led to the higher prices