In yet another scandal of smuggled subsidized food, a video taken in Sweden showed Lebanon’s subsidized rice displayed on the shelves of a supermarket, increasing people’s anger and frustration in crisis-stricken Lebanon.
The rice was only meant to be sold in Lebanon at a lower price to support the financially struggling families of the country where there is a sharp rise in commodity prices.
Instead, it traveled all the way to the Scandinavian country. “This bag of rice made it to Sweden and [I’m] stuck here,” someone on Reddit commented with hopeless sarcasm.
This is only the latest of several subsidized products that have been scandalously found being sold abroad, such as Picon cheese in Nigeria and Kuwait, Najjar coffee in Turkey, and recently Lebanese labneh in the Ivory Coast.
In another scam that outraged people in Lebanon over the weekend, emptied bags of subsidized sugar and rice were found being torched in a pile in a village in southern Lebanon.
Piles of emptied bags of supported goods are also reportedly found in other locations in Lebanon.
The discovery of these bags has uncovered a scam that includes the exploitation and illegal repackaging of subsidized goods in other bags to be sold at a higher price.
Just last month, over 4,500 tons of Lebanese subsidized products were found stored illegally in warehouses in northern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Lebanese have been reduced to fighting over subsidized items at supermarkets and some of these altercations are becoming violent.
The lack of control over subsidized products, as well as over the Lebanese Pound, among other pertinent matters in the country, further validates the people’s demands for reforms, starting with a capable government.
Hence the protests in the country continue, aiming to pressure the ruling body to save the country.
