Bread sheds weight

Price of bread pack stable, weight downsized by 100 grams

The weight of the standard pack of traditional white bread will be reduced to 900 grams, from the current 1,000 grams, according to a decision issued by the Ministry of Economy and Trade.

The decision stipulated that the price of the bread pack will remain at LL1,500. The decision will be effective from May 1. 

The Federation of Unions of Mills and Bakeries has been pushing the government to amend the capped price of bread. Bakeries argued that the sharp rise in the price of fuel, yeast, sugar, and other raw materials used for producing flat white bread had cut down their profitability. 

The price of white bread has been fixed at LL1,500 since more than a decade. But the standard pack, which weighed 1.5 kilo in 1997, had been gradually downsized.

According to the figures of the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Lebanon’s yearly consumption of wheat hovers at around 400,000 tons. The price of wheat flour is currently around LL510,000 ($340) per ton.

Reported by Hanadi Chami