Syria: fuel shortage and cost hits bakery production

The shortage of fuel and its unprecedented rise in price have taken a toll on bakeries operating in Syria’s regime-held areas, forcing them to make bread just two or three times a week. This has pushed the price of bread up significantly, Anadolu has reported.

With average wages pegged at around $20 per month, the cost of bread has risen to the equivalent of 50 cents a day for a bundle of bread enough for two people. The rate on the black market is even higher.

Bakeries in Damascus are opening once a week, with long queues of customers forming to get served as the suffering of Syrians in the regime-controlled areas gets worse. The crisis is so bad that usually loyal, well-known figures have criticised the regime.

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The crisis is exacerbated by the shortage of locally-produced wheat. Pro-regime media outlets quoted the minister of agriculture as saying that Syria’s wheat production this year amounted to 1.7 million tons, while the country needs 3.2m.

Over the past few months, the regime-controlled areas have witnessed successive economic crises, leading to a record drop in the price of the Syrian lira against the US dollar. At the beginning of this year, the Central Bank of Syria reduced the official exchange rate from 3,015 to 4,522 Syrian liras for one dollar, while the black market rate used in most economic activities is about 6,500.

In the absence of a political solution on the horizon, observers expect the economic crises to continue in the near future. The main victims are citizens whose purchasing power has fallen to an unprecedented level.

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