Beirut Explosion Destroys Tons of Lebanon’s Food Stocks

 Beirut Explosion Destroys Tons of Lebanon’s Food Stocks- Abhirami

The huge explosion in Lebanon’s capital of Beirut on 4th August 2020 was a bolt out of the blue and that blast killed dozens of people and injured thousands. This blast happened next to a grain store in the city’s port, most of which was wrecked. The videos which telecast the destruction shows the spilling from silos which is having a capacity to store 120,000 tones.

Most other food at the port, which handles 60% of Lebanon’s imports, was also ruined, according to Bob Jabra, a partner at local commodity trader Ibrahim Jabra & Sons. The company lost 10 containers of rice, or 250 tons, Jabra said.  

The governor said that destruction will be around 5 billion dollar.

Already the Lebanon was on the verge of economic crisis.Shortages of foreign exchange, fuel and food have caused prices to rocket. Overall inflation stood at 90% in June, while that for food was 247%, according to the government’s statistics agency. but they where not in short of food. Lebanon has enough wheat to last around six weeks and shouldn’t face deep shortages.The amount of flour in the market and on its way to Lebanon covers the market’s needs for a long period and therefore there’s no flour or bread crisis. Lebanon relies on privately-owned mills to ship wheat from Ukraine, Russia and other European countries. The government used to buy wheat from local farmers at above-market prices but hasn’t done so in years.

The Arab country has been battered by the corona virus pandemic and is suffering from its worst financial crisis in decades. The government defaulted on around $30 billion of Euro bonds in March and has been trying to get a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. But the explosion make it worse.

The damage is massive at the port and it will take a very long time to fix and build