An exhibitor arranges products at HORECA trade show in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 24, 2022. (Photo: Xinhua)

Layla Ibrahim has cut down on her daily meat consumption, not because of a health fad but forced by Lebanon's bruising economic crisis.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with full-scale wars.

The currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market, more than 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, and prices have skyrocketed. 

The price of imported red meat has increased fivefold, with some cuts costing more than the monthly minimum wage of 675,000 Lebanese pounds ($33).

As a result, dietary habits have changed and plant-based dishes, a popular part of Lebanon's Mediterranean cuisine, are now a main course in many households. 

Nabil Fahed, head of the syndicate of supermarket owners, said customers are opting for poultry or grain as a cheaper alternative.

Chicken is almost three times cheaper than beef and sells at around 120,000 pounds ($5) a kilogram.

The demand for red meat has plummeted since the government lifted subsidies on certain food imports in March 2021, Fahed said.

Sales dropped by around 70 percent in large supermarkets and the decline is even steeper in popular markets frequented by people with low incomes, he said.

Nancy Awada, a food inspector working with the Beirut municipality, has noticed a change in supply.

"The quantities of meat stored in a butcher's refrigerator... today are a quarter or a third of what they used to be," she said.

"Instead of slaughtering two or three calves a day, butchers make do with only one."

AFP