New Bundle Weight Takes Effect
Syria's Ministry of Economy and Industry on Saturday, 9 May 2026, ordered the standard ten-loaf bread bundle reduced to 1,050 grams, down from 1,200 grams, while leaving the retail price fixed at 4,000 Syrian pounds (SYP). The decision applies from the day it was issued and is being implemented by the Consumer Protection Department.
The ministry's media spokesman Hassan al-Ahmad confirmed the change and said the price would remain unchanged. The bundle still contains ten loaves, so each loaf now weighs roughly 105 grams — a 12.5 percent reduction in the bread a household receives for the same SYP outlay.
Sixteen Months of Shrinking Bundles
The 9 May cut is the third downward adjustment in less than a year and a half while the headline price has held at 4,000 SYP. Bundles weighed 1,500 grams after the change of government, were trimmed to 1,200 grams in February 2025, and have now fallen to 1,050 grams.
The loaf count was changed from 12 to 10 in October 2025, with the diameter widened to 33 centimeters at the time. The cumulative effect since the post-transition baseline is a 30 percent cut in the weight a household receives at the official price.
Flour Allocation and Subsidized Bakeries
The decision is paired with an internal allocation change: subsidized bakeries will receive 1.75 sacks of flour per ton of production. Daily output across the subsidized network is reported at about 74 tons of flour.
Authorities say nine bakeries were rehabilitated during 2026 in Idlib, Aleppo, Daraa, and Rural Damascus, expanding the network through which the subsidized bundle is distributed.
Food Security Backdrop
The change lands against a constrained food-security picture: humanitarian estimates from 2025 placed food-insecure Syrians at 9.1 million. A working partnership with the World Food Programme continues to support subsidized production.
Holding the price while shrinking the bundle is a familiar mechanism for managing wheat-import and currency pressures without a headline price hike. For households, the practical result is fewer grams of bread per 4,000 SYP.