Consumers buy over 100m loaves of bread in five days

AMMAN — Jordanians’ consumption of bread rose threefold during the snowstorm that started last week, compared to average consumption on normal days, Bakery Owners Association President Abdul Ilah Hamawi told The Jordan Times Sunday. 

Hamawi said people bought over 100 million loaves of bread in five days, a figure he said was “very much” higher than normal consumption, attributing the rise in demand to the “irresponsible behaviour” of consumers, who sought to store large quantities of bread during the blizzard. 

He indicated that bakeries used around 20,000 tonnes of subsidised flour during the depression between Wednesday and Saturday, adding that the average consumption of flour is usually 2,000 tonnes a day. 

Hamawi said the value of the bread sold in the depression was estimated at JD3.5 million. 

He said that bakeries across the Kingdom worked at full capacity during the storm, adding there were no complaints of disruption in production. 

“The demand bakeries saw in the past week was very big,” he said, calling on consumers not to panic when snow is expected. 

According to Hamawi, there are around 3,000 bakeries across the Kingdom, 700 of which are in Amman.