Latakia – Linda Ali

Bassema (45 years old) from the countryside of Jableh succeeded in preparing 20 kilograms of Makdous as a winter stock, replacing local walnuts with groundnuts to afford the whole quantity.

Bassema, who works in agricultural jobs, said that this year she couldn’t grow the essentials for Makdous like eggplants and peppers due to water shortage. She barely managed to grow a few simple vegetables for home use, so she had to buy all the essentials at high prices.

She bought 20 kilos of eggplants from the al-Hal popular market at 2700 Syrian pounds per kilo and 20 kilos of peppers at 9000 Syrian pounds per kilo, to prepare her stock of pepper paste and Makdous, reducing the quantity as last year she prepared 40 kilos. However, what helped her was not having to buy eggplants or peppers.

As for walnuts, she couldn’t afford them after spending large sums on other essentials, so she decided to replace them with groundnuts at 60,000 Syrian pounds per kilo. She also reduced the amount of garlic she bought to less than a quarter kilo for the whole quantity because the price per kilo was 80,000 Syrian pounds, while she didn’t need to buy oil as she had enough from the 2023 season.

Despite the high prices of its essentials, Bassema doesn’t see an alternative to preparing Makdous, as it is the main breakfast food in winter along with olives for her family. It’s also a good choice for them when they work in the fields.

Making it for my children

Nisreen (35 years old), a government employee, said she couldn’t deprive her children of Makdous, which she sees as more than just a type of food. For her, it’s a tradition that should not fade, but the high prices impose a new reality.

For example, she can’t replace the gas cylinder to boil the eggplants that need a long time, as the gas allowance barely arrives once every two months and isn’t enough for daily home needs. Also, the one-hour electricity supply isn’t enough for boiling on the laser cooker. So she bought a small quantity of pre-boiled and ready-to-stuff eggplants from a trusted lady who prepares stock supplies, at 35,000 Syrian pounds.

Before that, she prepared pepper paste by buying five kilograms of the material and making it. She also needed about 350 grams of walnuts and two heads of garlic and bought a liter of vegetable oil at 23,000 Syrian pounds, the cheapest available type in the market.

Thus, Nisreen succeeded in making a simple stock of Makdous. She said it would definitely not be enough, but it was better than not having it at all on the table.

No Makdous for the second year

Rasha (38 years old) failed to prepare Makdous for the second year in a row, as the price of all its essentials is very high, along with the cost of gas needed to boil the eggplants. Living in the city, she can’t use the method of boiling with wood.

After calculating with her husband the cost to prepare 10 kilos of eggplants, they found it would require around 300,000 Syrian pounds for eggplants, peppers, garlic, vegetable oil, and walnuts. So she decided to cancel the idea entirely since buying an ounce of labneh at 6000 Syrian pounds daily is easier, as she doesn’t have to pay large sums at once unlike Makdous.

For pepper paste, which is indispensable even in very small quantities, Rasha managed to make two kilograms by buying wilted red peppers at discounted prices whenever she found them, then preparing them at home. In the end, she succeeded in getting two kilograms at the lowest cost. She recalls once buying three kilos at 3000 Syrian pounds per kilo, equivalent to the price of one kilo only.

A tour of the al-Hal market in Jableh city shows the price of eggplants ranges between 2500 and 3200 Syrian pounds, with the most expensive being sorted small-sized suitable for Makdous.

Red peppers range between 6000 and 12000 Syrian pounds depending on type and quality. The type priced at 6000 Syrian pounds per kilo is good on the outside but spoiled and very foul-smelling on the inside.

In grocery stores, prices are higher, with eggplants costing between 4000 and 4500 Syrian pounds, and peppers between 13000 and 14500 Syrian pounds.

Most families in Latakia are giving up on the idea of making stock supplies as prices are high both in and out of vegetable seasons. There’s no significant difference, except for some rural residents who own agricultural lands and grow some crops for stocking without needing to buy.

Many people lost their stock in 2020 and 2021 due to power rationing, before stopping freezing stocking supplies and searching for new, still limited, alternatives.

The deteriorating value of the Syrian pound against the US dollar deepens the suffering of Syrians, with the selling price of the dollar at 15,000 Syrian pounds according to the S-P Today website, while the minimum government salary in areas controlled by the Syrian regime is 279,000 Syrian pounds.