After the explosion that gutted the silos of grain, near the port of Beirut, the FAO fears “have in the short term a problem of availability of flour”.
The explosions in Beirut have multiple consequences. After the explosion which has ripped the silos of cereals that are installed near the port of Beirut on Tuesday, the un Agency for food and agriculture, FAO, feared “to have in the short term a problem of the availability of flour to the country.”
“I received a very short message of the head of the FAO in Beirut : indeed it is feared that a large amount of wheat reserves on the port have been affected or destroyed by the explosion. The stocks are severely damaged,” said the head of the emergency of the FAO Dominique Burgeon. “And it is feared to have fairly brief time, a problem of availability of flour for the country,” he added during a brief telephone interview.
80 % of the food imported
The inflation of basic food commodities had already risen sharply in Lebanon, hit by a deep economic depression, reaching a high of 109 % between September and may, according to the world Food Programme (WFP), another UN agency.
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Maya Extremist, founder of “Food Blessed”, a lebanese NGO that distributes food aid, warns of shortages, the port being the main gateway for the imports. “Lebanon imports 80 % of its food. Immediately I thought : ‘shelves of supermarkets empty, price increases due to shortages'”, she narrated.
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At least a hundred people died, and thousands of others were injured in the massive explosions that devastated the port of Beirut on Tuesday. According to the governor of the city, Marwan Abboud, “nearly half of Beirut is destroyed or damaged, with 250 000 to 300 000 people left without a home.
