Opposition-controlled areas in the provinces of Daraa and Idleb have suffered from a shortage of sugar over the past week after deliveries were stopped from regime areas.

Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Idleb said on Monday, May 23, that the price of sugar in some areas of the province had reached 700 Syrian pounds a kilo, while there was a severe shortage in all liberated areas as well as those under regime control.

The correspondent said that sugar was entering the city’s north by two routes: the first from the Syrian coast via Hama road, which has been stopped for the past week because of a shortage of the item in regime areas, and the second route from Turkey by way of Bab al-Hawa.

The correspondent quoted one of the traders in the town of Saraqeb as saying that he had not been able to bring in sugar from the Bab al-Hawa crossing for some time, which pushed the Nusra Front to issue a statement in the Maarat al-Sharqi countryside that any trader caught monopolizing on sugar or any other item will have their property confiscated and distributed among the public.

In Daraa province, Enab Baladi’s correspondent said that the regime was selling sugar to citizens in its areas directly by way of its own cars, while the stores were empty of the item.

Regarding the shortage in the areas under opposition control, the correspondent said the item was recently available as residents had been obtaining sugar through aid packages, which they sold on to stores.

But because of the stoppage of sugar deliveries from the regime areas, people have refrained from selling it for fear it will be cut off, leading to a shartage in shops and the increase of its price to about 570 pounds a kilo.

An official source in the Internal Trade and Consumer Protection Ministry revealed to the al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime, a non-rationed increase in the price of sugar at state agencies to 275 pounds for a kilo instead of 250 pounds.

The source said that the hike came as a response to the increase in the costs of insuring the item, especially recently, in addition to the easing of the price difference between the agencies and the market — where its cost has reached nearly 450 pounds — in order to control cases of speculation.

The regime had raised the price of sugar for the positive intervention agencies last month by 30 percent from 175 pounds for a kilo to 225 pounds.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.