Sri Lanka's bakery shelves to empty in few days amid food shortage

All Ceylon Bakery Owners' Association (ACBOA) on Sunday said that bakery products including bread will be emptied from the shelves in the next two or three days amid severe food shortage in the country.

ACBOA President NK Jayawardena said that bread may disappear from bakery shelves soon due to the prevalent fuel crisis and the shortage and price increase of all ingredients, reported Daily Mirror.

With the current crisis and precarious economic situation, currently, 50 per cent of the bakery's production has stopped. The remainder too will grind to a halt very soon.

"As the responsible member, I mentioned earlier that the bakery industry is facing a serious threat and would collapse due to the prevalent fuel crisis," said Jayawardena.

The ACBOA President further blamed the government for the fuel crisis, adding that he had informed the Power and Energy Minister about this fuel crisis, but no response from the minister came yet, reported Daily Mirror.

"Bakery production also falls under the essential service category. But nothing has been done to salvage the bakery industry so far," he lamented.

Earlier on Saturday, Sri Lankan commoners stormed into President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official home and later broke into Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's private residence and set it on fire.

Both President Rajapaksa and PM Wickremesinghe have announced to step down from their posts amid the ongoing protests. However, the protesters who have occupied the residences of the President and Prime Minister have cleared that they will continue to occupy their houses until they resign from their posts.

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since gaining independence in 1948, which comes on the heels of successive waves of COVID-19, threatening to undo years of development progress.

Some 6.26 million Sri Lankans, or three in 10 households, are unsure of where their next meal is coming from, according to the latest food insecurity assessment from the World Food Programme (WFP).