Race for wheat heats up between Damascus, opposition
The Syrian government in Damascus is competing with the opposition government in the northwest to buy wheat, facing increased demand and high prices.
As wheat harvest season in Syria approaches, the regime and the opposition are separately setting up new pricing plans, hoping to get farmers to sell to them amid fears of a worsening shortage of domestic and imported supplies. These supplies are critical to ensuring food security for the populations in their respective areas of control.
Russia sent a ship carrying 25,000 tons of soft wheat to help replenish the local stock needed for making bread in government-controlled areas. The shipment arrived April 3 in Latakia.
The government's General Establishment for Cereal Processing and Trade (Hoboob) announced in early March it had been unable to close new wheat deals for 2020 because of high wheat prices, logistical difficulties, and expensive freight charges and freight insurance due to sanctions imposed on Syria. The government, normally the exclusive importer of wheat, in late March gave its approval for all industrialists and merchants to import wheat flour for bread.
Prior to this decision, the government had sought to acquire the entire wheat crop, competing with the opposition in northwestern Syria.
