Dubai
Beirut’s blast destroyed Lebanon’s only large grain silo, with plans for another in the country’s second biggest port Tripoli shelved years ago due to a lack of funding, the UN’s FAO, Tripoli port director and a regional grain expert said. The destruction of the 120,000-ton capacity structure and disabling of the port, the main entry point for food imports, means buyers will have to rely on smaller privately owned storage facilities for their wheat purchases, exacerbating concerns about food supplies.
Lebanon, a nation of an estimated six million people, imports almost all of its wheat. “There are smaller storage sites within the private sector millers because they have to store wheat before it is milled into flour,” said Maurice Saade, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in Lebanon.
“In terms of grain silos, that was the only major one.” Dozens are still missing after Tuesday’s explosion at the port that killed at least 154 people, injured 5,000 and left up to 250,000 homeless, in a country already staggering from economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus cases.
With banks in crisis, a collapsing currency and one of the world’s biggest debt burdens.—Arab News
