Prepare for a new bread package price hike

Lebanese barely managed to raise the price of a package of bread to 2,500 pounds, until Economy Minister Raúl Nehme began preparing to raise it again. This time, his goal is to hit the price of 3,000 lira, and he is expected to officially announce it next week. The argument is always present: the global increase in wheat prices and the rise in the price of the dollar, which affects the 15 percent that importers pay for the price of wheat, and the prices of the rest of the ingredients that go to the industry of bread. This time, it brings with it a new reason, which is the lifting of sugar subsidies, which led to “incurring” additional costs for bakeries.

Within a few months, the Minister of the Economy doubled the price of the bundle of “Arab bread”, noting that the wheat is still supported by the price of 1,500 pounds. This wheat is used to make other products whose price is not officially specified, which generates huge profit margins for the cartel of the ovens, which is protected by the Minister of Economy instead of tightening control over it, because bread is an essential material in people’s lives. Wheat subsidies are the least expensive of all the other subsidized commodities. The Banque du Liban pays just over $ 100 million to support this article. But in return, it pays about $ 3 billion to support fuels, which benefit the rich more than the poor.