Call for state oversight of food and medicine security
LIBYA – Former Minister of Economy and Trade Mohamed Al-Hweij has attributed the dollar and bread crisis partly to a loss of confidence in the market caused by exchange-rate instability and the absence of a budget, calling for food and medicine security to be placed under state oversight while preserving the role of the private sector.
Grain board still not activated since 2022
In exclusive comments to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Al-Hweij said a strategic stockpile of basic grains, above all wheat, was essential to protect food security, noting that in 2022 he had called for the creation of a Libyan Grain Board and that a decision establishing it was issued but it has not been activated to date.
He argued that activating the board would have protected flour from traders’ speculation and international disruption, stressing the importance of government oversight of food and medicine security without excluding the private sector.
Private sector, letters of credit and price negotiations
Al-Hweij described the private sector as the main partner in imports, in coordination with the authorities responsible for facilitating the opening of letters of credit and for negotiating with exporting countries during harvest seasons to obtain preferential prices.
He said this cooperation makes it possible to monitor the quality of imported goods and medicines and to track stocks, noting that dollar volatility pushes traders to price according to the parallel market to maximise profits and hedge against exchange-rate fluctuations.
Wheat imports and criticism of temporary fixes
Al-Hweij described the authorities’ interventions during the bread crisis as “temporary fixes” that lack sustainability because of exchange-rate fluctuations and the absence of a unified budget, calling for “a comprehensive vision to secure the loaf as the centrepiece of any food basket”.
He said Libya imports about 1.25 million tonnes of soft wheat and 300,000 tonnes of durum wheat, adding that the country used to meet most of its durum wheat needs by growing it in the south before this vital file was neglected.
