Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade Raoul Nehme announced a plan to subsidize basic food products with the aim to curb the soaring prices of food commodities as a result of the devaluation of the local currency against the US dollar.
During a press conference, Nehme said the subsidized food basket would be supported in cooperation with the Central Bank through a mechanism established by the Ministry of Economy, which will reduce commodity prices and maintain food security during these difficult times.
The minister said the basket would include all the necessary nutritional components, including vegetable and animal protein and carbohydrates, in addition to raw materials for industry and agriculture to enable farmers and industrialists to produce food commodities, including sugar, rice, grains, milk, oil and livestock.
Nehme underlined his ministry’s keenness to reduce the prices of basic food commodities by setting a specific mechanism that would be adopted to prevent squandering and to control sales from the importer to the consumer.
“Prices will be adjusted to match the purchasing power of the citizen,” he stressed, warning that the ministry would strictly deal with the violators and would refer them to the judiciary.
The decision comes after the rise in the price of food and consumer products by 100 to 300 percent in recent months, as a result of the scarcity of the dollar and the high exchange rate on the black market, where the dollar was sold at LBP 4,000.