Sharjah24 – AFP: The Lebanese are 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.
Lebanon's cash-strapped government is struggling to afford fuel imports to feed its power plants, causing outages that last up to 22 hours a day in most parts of the country.
To safeguard stocks, traders and distributors have to pay for expensive generator subscriptions to power refrigerators, said meat importer Imad Harouk of the Fed Distribution company.
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