From the fighting in Syria, local farmers have difficulty in marketing their grain to the government, even despite a good gross yield (the official estimate is 3 million tons, the FAO – 2,445 million tons with an average five-year value of 3.5 million tons) and high price offers.

Import of grain is hampered by Western sanctions. Syria plans to increase imports of grain, in spite of the high harvest.
 

The government lost control over many grain producing regions, resulting in refraining from procurement from the farmers of these regions. During the current marketing year, which is nearing completion in Syria, the government bought 454,7 tons of wheat from farmers compared to 523 thousand tons in the same period last year. In the previous year's annual procurement amounted to 2.5 million tons of wheat annually.

In January, the government raised the price of bread by 40%, and, according to local residents, reduced the flour content in bread. Farmers sell their wheat to middlemen at low prices, which take out the grain in neighboring Iraq and Turkey, or reduce the area in favor of other crops

. According to local traders, the government needs to buy at least 1-1,5 million tons of wheat to provide bread for controlled territory. In this case imports will be cheaper than transportation of its grain through the war zone.

The government has announced several tenders for the purchase to buy a total of 450 thousand tons of grain, but the results of these tenders are unknown.