MOSCOW (Sputnik ) Lebanon’s ongoing Currency meltdown has impacted the country’s foodstuff market, with cheaper foreign brands and domestically-manufactured goods rising to prominence on the shelves of local shops, the head of the Lebanese Syndicate of Importers of Foodstuff, Hani Bohsali, told Sputnik. “Importing brands with good value for money from Turkey or Greece or Syria or Jordan or any other country is a necessary phenomenon as you cannot force more expensive products on consumers that are no longer able to afford them,” Bohsali stated. With food prices estimated to have increased by a margin of 70 percent since the onset of the country’s liquidity crisis at the end of 2019, a large chunk of the country’s population has been rendered unable to afford a number of popular goods, leading importers to prioritize cheaper alternatives from other markets.

While the situation is far from ideal in the country’s domestic manufacturing sector due to its reliance on imported raw materials, the liquidity crisis has allowed locally-made goods to rise to prominence, with their market share increasing as imported alternatives became prohibitively expensive for Lebanese consumers. “Personal care products like hair gel are mostly produced locally as well as candy, canned foods, ground coffee, bottled water. All of these have been available in Lebanon and their share has increased. However, there are no new industries that did not exist earlier in light of the situation, as making large investments in localized manufacturing to produce items that are still unknown to the consumer is a difficult endeavor,” Bohsali added. The Mediterranean nation’s ongoing liquidity crisis has had a profound impact on consumers’ purchasing power, with over 50 percent of the country’s population now living below the poverty line as the currency continues its downward spiral, losing over 85 percent of its value since the onset of the crisis in late 2019.