Grain and subsidized flour reserves down to two to three months supply

By Libya Herald reporter.

Malta, 14 February 2015:

The manager of Libya’s state Price Stability Fund, Jamal Shibani, warned that Libya’s grain reserve . . .[restrict]supplies will be depleted within two to three months.

This would reduce the supply of subsidized bread flour to bakeries by half, down to 65,000 tonnes per month.

The Price Stability Fund is the state organ responsible for controlling the price of certain staple food items by releasing state subsidised food products onto the Libyan market. Grains used for bread flour is one of these subsidized items.

Shibani said that depletion of the state’s grain reserves is as a result of the delay in payments to the fund due to the collapse in oil revenues and foreign currency reserves at banks.

He also added that the air strikes on Misrata’a port had caused shipping to refrain from calling at the port, causing delays in the arrival of imported grain shipments.

It will be recalled that the government had announced at the start of February that it had been forced to resort to using its flour reserves to supply bakeries in an effort to end the bread shortages in eastern Libya. [/restrict]