Empty fridges show impact of Lebanon's economic crisis

Photographers capture distressed Lebanese people with their empty shelves

A combination image shows bare fridges across Lebanon as the economic crisis plunges households into poverty. AFP

A Lebanese woman stands next to her empty refrigerator in her apartment in the port city of Tripoli. AFP

A Lebanese woman in Bouar north of Beirut displays the content of her refrigerator. AFP

A Lebanese child stands next to an empty refrigerator in their apartment in the port city of Tripoli. AFP

A Lebanese man displays the content of his refrigerator at his apartment in the southern city of Sidon. AFP

A Lebanese man displays the content of his refrigerator at his apartment in the southern city of Sidon. AFP

A Lebanese woman stands next to her empty refrigerator in her apartment in the port city of Tripoli. AFP

A Lebanese woman displays the content of her refrigerator at her apartment in the southern city of Sidon. AFP

A Lebanese woman stands next to her empty refrigerator in her apartment in Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut. AFP

A Lebanese woman displays the content of her refrigerator at her apartment in the southern city of Sidon. AFP

A Lebanese man looks at his empty refrigerator at his apartment in the capital. AFP

A Lebanese man displays the content of his refrigerator at his apartment in the southern city of Sidon. AFP

A Lebanese woman displays the content of her refrigerator at her apartment in the southern city of Sidon. AFP

A Lebanese woman displays the content of her refrigerator at her apartment in the southern city of Sidon. AFP

A Lebanese woman stands next to her empty refrigerator in her apartment in the port city of Tripoli. AFP

A Lebanese woman displays the content of her refrigerator at her apartment in Jounieh, north of Beirut. AFP

A Lebanese woman displays the content of her refrigerator at her apartment in Byblos. AFP

Empty fridges in households across Lebanon have come to exemplify the country’s economic crisis as the local currency has collapsed alongside purchasing power, plunging whole segments of society into poverty.

Holding her fridge door open, Fadwa Merhebi explains she already downsized once because she could not afford enough food to fill it up.

Now it contains only a bottle of mineral water and two cucumbers.

"If there were smaller fridges on the market, I would sell this one and buy a smaller one," says the 60-year-old, who lives alone in a tiny flat in Tripoli.

"At least I could use the money to buy something to eat."

AFP photographers spent several days in June visiting people's homes in the main cities of Beirut, Tripoli, Byblos, Jounieh and Sidon to ask them how they managed to put food on the table.

Those who agreed to be photographed posed in front of open fridges whose bare shelves often hinted at the leanest of diets.

Earlier this year, Lebanon defaulted on its debt and, while the peg to the dollar remains unchanged, the pound has since nosedived on the black market.

In a country so heavily reliant on imports, the blow is huge and thousands of businesses were doomed even before the coronavirus lockdown shuttered the economy.

Prices have soared almost as fast as the currency has plummeted, meaning that a salary of 1 million pounds has fallen from about $700 to about $200.

The crisis is sounding the death knell for a middle class that is sliding into the half of the population the World bank now estimates lives below the poverty line.

A far cry from the country's erstwhile image as the "Switzerland of the Middle East" fabled for its nightlife and entrepreneurial genius, a class of destitute Lebanese is emerging across the country.