In an attempt to stop the monopolizing of bread by bakers and their exploitation of grocery shops and costumers, the Municipality of Ghobeiry took bold action that angered the Union of Bakery Owners.
The municipality sent its police officers to buy all the bread from a local Bakery and sold it to small local grocery shops at normal costs.
The Union of Bakery Owners had previously announced that they will stop distributing bread and will only sell their bread production in the bakeries.
The Union also added that in case bakeries decide to distribute bread to local supermarkets and grocery shops, the price of bread will be higher by 250 LBP in the aforementioned shops.
Even though the price increase does not seem significant, it will direct people into buying their bread from bakeries mostly.
Initially, the Municipality of Ghobeiry has warned bakeries from increasing their prices, which aggravated the union.
The bakeries in the Ghobeiry district have nonetheless increased the price for distributors. Consequently, the distribution revenue for the distributor decreased, which has, in turn, dominated the price increase for shop owners.
As a result, some distributors declined to receive bread for distribution, and some shop owners declined to receive bread due to lower profits.
شرطة بلدية الغبيري تصادر كميات من الخبز وتوزعها على المحال لتوفيرها إلى المواطنين بعد اضراب أصحاب الأفران
— LEB NOW⚡ (@leb_now) April 20, 2020
Accordingly, the Ghobeiry Municipality sent three warnings to three of the bakeries operating in Ghobeiry. It demanded that bakeries should return to the original pricing before the amendment, under penalty of closing these bakeries immediately.
When the municipality found out that prices are still high for distributors, it bought all the bread from the offending Bakery and sold it to grocery shops nearby at normal reduced costs.
A video was shared via social media of someone claiming to be from the union, accusing the municipality of prosecuting away the bread and stealing it. “Why don’t municipalities support bakeries? This is injustice!”
In a Facebook post, the head of the Municipality Maan Khalil explained: “Ghobeiry municipality police is returning the bread to its people. The voice you are hearing in this video belongs to the owner of one of the bakeries that refrained from distributing bread.”
Khalil proceeded to say that the same bakery then retracted the decision and decided to distribute the bread with an increase of price for the distributors.
“For those interested in knowing the details of what happened, we would like to point out that after Ghobeiry municipality took the decision to continue the distribution of bread at the normal price, and with the consent of owners of the bakeries, some union members and unidentified individual deliberately prevented the distributors affiliated with the bakeries from doing so.”
بلدية الغبيري توجه 3 اخطارات الى 3 من الافران العاملة في الغبيري
— Ali Hmeidan (@hmeidan_ali) April 20, 2020
عمدت الافران اليوم في منطقة الغبيري الى رفع السعر على الموزع وبالتالي انخفضت عائدات التوزيع على الموزع الذي بدوره سيطر لرفع الاسعار على صاحب المحلات.
نتيجة ذلك امتنع بعض الموزعين عن استلام الخبز لتوزيعه pic.twitter.com/GBbQB9f1A9
Accordingly, Ghobeiry municipality police intervened and took the bread from the bakeries only to distribute it to supermarkets and grocery shops at the normal reduced prices via municipality police cars.
The municipality then paid the bakeries in full after the distribution was made.
“Al-Ghobeiry municipality decided to prosecute all those who are promoting false accusations. As for preventing bakeries from distributing, it is their full right to prosecute,” Khalil concluded.
You can watch the video here:
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