The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has increased the price of a bread bundle in the areas under its control.
AANES issued a circular today, Sunday, March 17, which included doubling the price to 1,000 Syrian pounds.
The circular specified the weight of the bundle to be 1,100 grams and to include nine loaves, priced at 900 pounds, with a profit margin of 100 pounds for the distributor.
The new pricing is scheduled to start tomorrow, Monday.
The previous price of the bundle was 500 pounds, with a profit margin of 100 pounds for the distributor.
A circular issued by the Economic Committee to raise the price of bread in the Autonomous Administration areas – March 17, 2024 (Facebook)
In December 2022, the Autonomous Administration raised the price of a bread bundle to 500 pounds, justifying the increase with the rise in the dollar’s price, and set the weight of a bread bundle at 600 grams consisting of seven loaves, which followed an earlier price increase in September of the same year.
The decision to raise the price comes despite the opening of new bakeries in the areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration.
Today, Hawar News Agency, which is close to AANES, said that the latter had opened eight new bakeries with a productive capacity of one ton and 650 kilograms of bread.
The price increase imposes a financial burden on the residents of the region along with the poor quality of bread produced in the public bakeries managed by both the Autonomous Administration and the Syrian regime.
The low quality of the bread drives residents to buy the “tourist” bread bundles, which in turn constitutes a financial burden on them.
The price of a “tourist” bread bundle reaches 4,500 Syrian pounds.
Residents of the area live in deteriorating living conditions, similar to different influence zones across Syrian geography, while the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are considered the richest in Syria since they include most of the oil wells, in addition to being described as the “wheat barn of Syria,” due to the significant agricultural activity there.
The exchange rate of the US dollar against the Syrian pound is 13,850 pounds, according to the S-P Today website, which specializes in currency exchange rates.