Libya’s Food and Drug Control Centre (FDCC) rejected a “rotten” shipment of guava from Egypt, citing that the sample contains mould.
The FDCC stated that the shipment, consisting of 500 guava boxes, arrived at the Imsaed land port.
Earlier this month, the FDCC rejected a shipment of “adulterated” green tea from China, due to the difference in brand between the outer and the inner packages. The centre stated that the shipment, consisting of 1,678 cartons, of the Nabit brand, arrived at the port of Al-Khums. It added the shipment was rejected due to “a commercial fraud by one of the supplier companies.”
Thousands of tons of rice, edible oils, vegetables and fruits have recently reached Libyan territory, through the Salloum land port. The Chairman of the Libyan-Egyptian Economic Chamber, Ibrahim Al-Jarari, told Sky News Arabia that the Egyptian government “showed great cooperation to alleviate the effects of what Libya is suffering from.”
The Egyptian Ministries of Trade and Industry excluded Libya from banning the export of Egyptian foodstuffs last March and April, following the global economic crises caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war.
“The lack of sufficient and qualified silos and storage centers to preserve foodstuffs in Libya at the present time contributed to this crisis,” Al-Jariri added.
Al-Jarari noted that 1,000 tons of rice and 5,000 tons of edible oil, which were not available in the Libyan market, crossed from Egypt to Libya in recent days. “The shipment will be distributed to Libyan cities immediately,” he said.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that Libya relies heavily on imports to cover its cereal consumption requirements, mostly wheat for human consumption and barley for feed.
According to the 2022 Libya Humanitarian Needs Overview, about 800,000 people, 10% of the population, are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance, down from 1.3 million one year earlier. It includes 500,000 people requiring food assistance, about a third less than in 2021.