Starting from 4 April, 2020 the state-run shops of Lebap velayat have been selling a kilo of chicken drumsticks, 5 kilos of vegetable oil per household and 4 kilos of Kazakhstan flour per person.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that these groceries are available in the etraps of Khalach, Sayat, Khodzhambaz, Chardzhiev and Dovletli.
Two police officers and one NSM officer keep vigil in front of each store.After the shop in Dostluk (Dovletli etrap) was closed down, they made an inventory report to check the stock of the groceries left.
Before the shop opened in the morning of 5 April, 2020 the police officers checked the data in the inventory report against the groceries in stock in the store.
One of the food industry employees reported that the flour from Kazakhstan had been previously kept at the warehouses as a reserve. As Turkmenistan does not currently have any domestically-produced flour, pursuant to the instructions from Ashgabat urgent measures need to be undertaken to meet the demand in essential groceries.
It is obviously linked to the growing discontent of the country’s residents who are already protesting openly.
Over the past few years Turkmenistan has been experiencing a shortage of essential groceries. The situation is especially acute in the provinces, which occasionally see the reduction in the rationing of flour and bread sold to residents at state prices.
At the Cabinet session held on 3 April 2020 the President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was quoted as saying that ensuring stable operations of the retail sector is one of the key objectives.
In this connection the head of state instructed that “sufficient stock of essential goods, including groceries” needs to be set up.