Demand for cooking ingredients and meals remained under huge pressure in 2023 as the impact of Lebanon’s severe socioeconomic crisis continued to undermine the spending power of much of the local population. However, the situation is improving slowly and this meant positive volume growth in most categories.
The resilience of the Lebanese population came to the fore during 2023 as households adapted and adjusted to the extremely adverse political and socioeconomic situation that has plagued the country since 2019. Despite the challenges that the local population continue to face in their attempts to lead normal, productive lives amidst the complete collapse of the country’s financial system and the dire political vacuum caused by the ongoing lack of executive government, most Lebanese households seem to be faring much better than might have been expected.
The situation in Lebanon has reached the stage where the United Nations has warned that an estimated three-quarters of households in Lebanon, including nearly 100% of Syrian refugees living in the country, do not have enough food or money to buy food. Cooking ingredients and meals is a consumer goods industry that has been more heavily impacted by the economic crisis than many others due to the fact that edible oils is the only category in which products are widely regarded as daily essentials.
Despite efforts to stabilise the exchange value of the Lebanese pound, 2022 and 2023 software the consistent devaluation of the Lebanese pound and the impact of this on the spending power of the local population gives major cause for concern: The Lebanese pound’s official US dollar exchange rate went from LBP1,500 to LBP15,000 per USD1 as of February 2023. This has led to some exchange rate stability, which has in turn supported some increases in salaries when denominated in local currency, notably in the public sector, where all salaries are still denominated in LBP, even as exchange rate anomalies have essentially rendered the incomes public sector workers virtually worthless.
Lebanon’s deeply rooted infrastructure issues have been severely exacerbated since the onset of the ongoing economic crisis. Power cuts were already a common occurrence in the country.
While the uncertainty that flows from the current adverse economic situation in Lebanon makes it difficult to make accurate predictions about the immediate future for cooking ingredients and meals, it is likely that different categories will react differently to the situation. One certainty is that the current crisis will inevitably last for several years, with a minimum of 5-7 years of extreme hardship likely to lie had for the country’s population.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Cooking Ingredients and Meals industry in Lebanon with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
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Data and analysis in this report provides further detailed coverage dedicated to a comprehensive range of core packaged food categories.
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Cooking Ingredients and Meals
This report originates from Passport, our Cooking Ingredients and Meals research and analysis database.
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