Lack of bread in northeast Syria’s regions push residents to alternatives
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – In light of the lack of bread due to bakeries malfunctions or striking in order to increase the price of a bread bundle, most families in north and east Syria regions have recently resorted to other alternatives such as homemade (Saj) bread.
Housekeepers in Syria’s northeast town of Jil Agha and its countryside that contain 22 bakeries, buy flour in order to prepare homemade bread, while other families depend on their supply of wheat, which they have saved for this purpose.
The Economy Committee in the town activated shifts’ system for the work of bakeries due to the shortage in flour allocations that the town has been witnessing for about two months.
The Jil Agha resident, Aysha Abdullah said that she bought a 50-kg-bag of flour at 30,000 Syrian pounds (SYP), “each time I use 5 kg to prepare bread, the bag will not last for more than ten days.”
Abdullah laments herself because she has not saved sufficient amounts of wheat as she used to do during the first years of war.
It is worth mentioning that some families, which do not have enough space to place mud oven or bonfire for preparing bread and some others that cannot prepare bread at home for other reasons, are forced to buy the subsidized bread that witnessed an increasing price from 1,000 SYP to 1,200 SYP for each bundle, while each loaf of Saj bread is sold for 250 SYP.
Meanwhile others believe that the price of bread for a family of big number is too much especially for the low income families in light of the deteriorating living conditions that the country is witnessing.
Sa’ida al-Khalaf, a resident of northeast Syria, said, “Preparing homemade bread will solve the crisis, in case flour and fuel are available at reasonable prices.”
In the same context, the city of Shaddadi, south Hasakah, is also witnessing the same crisis, but in another way.
The suspension of one of the automated bakeries in the countryside of Shaddadi led to overcrowding in front of other bakeries.
“The bakery stopped working due to a malfunction causing people to be queued in front the Automated Bakery in the city,” Fahed al-Khedair, official in the Economy Committee in Shaddadi, said on Wednesday.
“We are working hard to avoid malfunctions; however we are facing many difficulties and obstacles in securing engine spare parts, forcing us to import them from the city of Manbij,” al-Khedair added.