Bread Crisis Fuels Tunisians’ Fears over Food Security

A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)
A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)
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Bread Crisis Fuels Tunisians’ Fears over Food Security

A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)
A Tunisian citizen was able to buy quantities of bread after waiting his turn in the long queues. (AFP)

Everyday at dawn, Khaldoun Ben Amo, 63, heads to the neighborhood’s bakery to buy bread, to avoid the long queues that start to form in the early morning hours - a scene that is now common in Tunis.

Najia Khalafallah, 56, who lives in a village with one bakery, told Reuters that after 10 am she could not find a single loaf of bread, noting that residents were now registering their names and the number of required loaves of bread, which are not allowed to exceed five per family.

Such sad scenes are seen daily in all governorates of Tunisia. Everyday people stand in long queues in front of bakeries to get their bread.

Bread is a staple food product in Tunisian diet. The rate of consumption of bread per capita reaches 70 kilograms annually, and increases significantly during the month of Ramadan, according to official data from the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies.

The bread crisis in Tunisia fuels citizens’ fears about the existence of real threats affecting their food security, especially in light of the shortage of a number of basic foodstuffs, such as sugar, flour, rice and coffee, in addition to the milk crisis that emerged months ago.

President Kais Saeed accused “lobbyists and parties,” whom he did not name, of fabricating the crisis, calling on the Ministry of Agriculture, the Grain Board and all departments to “confront monopolists and those who tamper with the food security of Tunisians.”

“The aim of these successive crises is to fuel society for clear political ends,” he said, pointing to weak economic control, price hikes and the deterioration of the purchasing power.

Reports by the Tunisian Institute of Consumer indicate that about 900,000 pieces of bread are wasted yearly, at the cost of 100 million dinars ($33 million).

In conjunction with Saeed's statements, the Ministry of Commerce decided to stop supplying unlicensed bakeries with subsidized flour, which sparked the owners’ anger.

According to the Association for the Fight Against the Rentier Economy in Tunisia (ALERT), the bread crisis lies in structural problems, summarized in the level of local grain production, and the distribution of rations from mills to bakeries.

The association said that even in the best climatic conditions, local production was not able to cover the annual needs of grains, due to the neglect of the agricultural sector, especially main crops.

The Ministry of Agriculture had announced that the country’s wheat crop fell this year by 60 percent to 250,000 tons due to drought, increasing the country’s financial difficulties, at a time when the government is trying to obtain an international rescue package.

 

 



Members of UK Jewish Group Say Can't 'Turn Blind Eye' to Gaza War

Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP
Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP
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Members of UK Jewish Group Say Can't 'Turn Blind Eye' to Gaza War

Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP
Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP

Members of the largest organization representing British Jews have said they can no longer "turn a blind eye" to the war in Gaza, adding "Israel's soul is being ripped out".

In a major break with the Board of Deputies of British Jews' policy of supporting the Israeli leadership, 36 of its members criticized the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Gaza in an open letter published in the Financial Times.

"The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out," said the letter, signed by around one in eight members of the Board of Deputies, AFP reported.

"We cannot turn a blind eye or remain silent" about the loss of life since a two-month truce collapsed on March 18, as negotiations over the return of Israeli hostages broke down, the letter added.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

"Israel's soul is being ripped out and we, members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, fear for the future of the Israel we love and have such close ties to," added the letter.

The signatories accused the "most extremist of Israeli governments" of "openly encouraging violence against Palestinians in the West Bank."

"We stand against the war. We acknowledge and mourn the loss of Palestinian life," they added.

A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies told the Guardian that other members would "no doubt put more emphasis on the fundamental responsibility of Hamas for this ghastly situation."

At least 1,691 Palestinians have been killed since the resumption of the Israeli offensive, bringing the death toll in Gaza since the start of the war to 51,065, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry.