Described as a narrowly-averted catastrophe for the country's foodstuff importers, the August 4 Beirut port blast has had little impact on the import of foodstuff into the country, with only minor delays reported, the head of the Lebanese Syndicate of Importers of Foodstuffs, Hani Bohsali, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2021) Described as a narrowly-averted catastrophe for the country's foodstuff importers, the August 4 Beirut port blast has had little impact on the import of foodstuff into the country, with only minor delays reported, the head of the Lebanese Syndicate of Importers of Foodstuffs, Hani Bohsali, told Sputnik.
"The port's container yard was intact after the explosion and resumed operations five days after the explosion; otherwise, it would have been a catastrophe. Over 80 percent of the imported foodstuffs arrive in containers, and so import was not affected. There were some delays, but goods were largely available," Bohsali commented.
Decimating large sections of the city and rendering one-third of its population homeless, the blast left some sections of the port relatively unscathed, allowing it to resume operations a few days after the disaster.
Located just southwest of the blast's epicenter, the city's main grain silos storing roughly 85 percent of Lebanon's cereals were badly damaged, with their contents rendered unusable and leaving the country with less than a month's supply of grain reserves at the time.
"The destruction of the grain silos was a massive loss, but wheat and grain merchants have managed to adapt to its absence, but not without difficulties," Bohsali added.
Ripping through the city barely a few days into the country's second lock-down, the port blast dealt the beleaguered Mediterranean nation a defeating blow as authorities already struggling with a sharp economic crisis, a countrywide uprising, and the COVID-19 pandemic were caught off-guard by the blast, forcing then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab to resign from his office within a few days.
