The Minister of Economy and Trade in the caretaker government, Amin Salam, revealed that he sent a letter three weeks ago to the Emir of Kuwait, Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, requesting the reconstruction of grain silos in Lebanon to preserve food security. He indicated that he "made it clear in the letter that we are requesting this for the people of Lebanon, not for the Lebanese government, because bread is for the people and no Arab country should be left without a strategic stockpile."
Salam stated, "We undoubtedly face a major challenge regarding food security since we lost the silos at the Port of Beirut, as we lost our strategic and reserve stockpile which typically ensures sustainability for 3 to 6 months. Unfortunately, we did not have a long-term vision in Lebanon, and the stock was concentrated in one location, which does not last more than 3 months." He clarified that "without it, we now rely on importing wheat, and when it is delivered, flour is made by milling it in Lebanon and distributing it through bakeries."
He noted, "We devised a plan with the Ministry of Agriculture more than a year and three months ago to take advantage of agricultural seasons and increase the production of soft wheat, as the increase of hard wheat in Lebanon is significant and unsuitable for making Arabic bread. Thus, we established an acceptable mechanism to increase national production of soft wheat by 10% each year, with the hope that the agricultural yield will reach 50% to achieve a certain level of self-sufficiency."
In this context, the Minister of Economy mentioned that "in Lebanon, we use between 30,000 to 35,000 tons of wheat to produce 20,000 to 25,000 tons of flour, which means we consume 35,000 to 40,000 tons per month." He revealed that “after the end of the agricultural season, it became evident to us that there are 60,000 tons of soft and hard wheat in the market, with a larger proportion being hard wheat. However, the production yield was not at the 10% level we hoped for due to several factors that complicated the situation for farmers and the state, although there has been tremendous work by the Ministry of Agriculture; we have taken a step in the thousand-mile journey.”
He added, “The Lebanese state will now buy soft wheat from farmers as it does from abroad, in addition to a certain percentage of hard wheat since it is used in making Arabic bread. However, the quantities available today are insufficient and minimal as the total production barely meets Lebanon's needs for a month and a half, and we still have a lot of work to do before we can say that Lebanon's production of soft wheat covers 3 to 6 months.”
Regarding the construction of new silos, Salam explained that "we have put a plan in place to distribute the food strategic stockpile and others in several geographical areas. Therefore, in the first phase, we have allocated 22,000 square meters at the Port of Beirut to reconstruct new silos, and we established 35,000 square meters with the Ministry of Public Works at the Port of Tripoli for building silos. Today, a tender has also been launched to build silos in Tripoli for the private sector, but no one has applied,” expressing hope that "we will receive a response soon from Kuwait because the funds are available in the Kuwaiti development fund, and 'with the stroke of a pen' a decision can be made to build the silos."
