Bread crisis continues in northeast Syria’s Jazira
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A bread crisis continues in Syria’s Jazira region, as bakeries in the city of Hasakah remain closed and bakeries in Qamishli city begin to manipulate the weight of bread bundles.
Most of the subsidized bakeries in the city of Hasakah stopped production shortly before New Year’s Day, leading to overcrowding in front of other bakeries and pastry shops.
Distribution issues
Hasakah resident Abdulrahman al-Sayer told North Press that obtaining quality bread is an old and persistent problem for Hasakah’s people, as bread produced in public bakeries is of low quality and rarely enough to feed the city’s neighborhoods. This forces most residents of Hasakah, and northeast Syria, to purchase subsidized bread, known locally as Siyahi bread.
Al-Sayer must now purchase 30 loaves of tannour bread for 3,000 Syrian pounds (SYP) to meet the needs of his family of six. He is forced to do this because his neighborhood council has stopped bringing bread from both public bakeries and subsidized bakeries.
In mid-July 2020, Jazira region Executive Council co-chair Talaat Yunus stated that the administration had put in place a new mechanism for bread distribution, and that the “next few” days would see an improvement in both the quality and available quantity of bread.
At the end of July, the Executive Council announced the beginning of placing stalls in the neighborhoods of Jazira’s cities as an attempt to end the bread crisis. 31 stalls and nine shops were allocated for bread distribution in Hasakah; however, some did not enter service despite the passage of over five months.
Manipulating weight
Amid a shortage of bread, subsidized bread ovens in Syria’s Qamishli city have been manipulating the weight of bread bundles, which are supposed to weigh 700 grams regardless of the number and size of pieces of bread, in accordance with a previous decision by the Autonomous Administration.
North Press correspondents recorded videos showing the actual weight of the subsidized bread bundles, with some having a discrepancy of 50-100 grams per bundle. This violates a July decision by the Economy and Agriculture Authority of the Jazira region, which stipulated a bread bundle must be sold at 500 Syrian pounds (SYP) and have a weight of 700 grams (±5 grams).
Bakery closures
Subsidized bakery owner Malik Haj Ragheb, from the city of Hasakah, explained that work in his bakery stopped because of high production costs that were not commensurate with the price of a bread bundle.
He added to North Press, “When the price of bread was raised to 500 SYP, the dollar exchange rate was about 2,150 SYP, and now it has reached nearly 3,000 SYP.”
Subsidized bread bakeries buy flour, yeast, sugar, and bags from the market or local committees according to market prices. Haj Raghed criticized the committees that supervise bread production “because they only provide us with diesel for 150 SYP per liter, and do not take into account the high prices of other materials subject to exchange rates.”
Two days ago, the owners of subsidized bread bakeries met with Economic Authority committees with the aim of finding a solution to end the suffering of the population.
Mahmoud Muhammad, who is in charge of managing the bakeries in Jazira region, said that discussions are underway and studies are being prepared to find a solution to restart the subsidized bakeries.