This report presents findings from a market price-monitoring exercise conducted across 33 retail shops in the Idleb and Hama governorates of Syria during late May and early June 2026. Implemented by Shafak with the support of IOM, the assessment tracked cheapest and highest reported prices for essential commodities — fresh produce, food staples, proteins, fuel, water, housing and hygiene items — alongside shopkeepers' assessments of recent price movements and their underlying drivers. At collection time, the average exchange rate stood at 140.24 New SYP and 46.10 TL per US dollar. The dominant finding is a broad, currency-driven inflationary trend: 78.8% of monitored shops reported overall price increases compared with the previous month.

Round 2 provides the first measured baseline comparison for this project. Every price movement below is calculated against the Round 1 survey average for the same commodity, rather than taken from the trader's own recollection of price change. The headline is a divergence: protein and fuel rose sharply while fresh vegetables fell, leaving the overall basket only 3.7% above June despite 81.1% of shops reporting increases.

Data collection covered 17 shops in Idleb governorate — concentrated in Al Ma'ra (11) and Idleb (6) districts — and 16 shops in Hama's Muhradah district, split evenly between Muhradah and Shayzar communities. Surveys were conducted across three field days: 24 May (11 shops), 25 May (6 shops), and 1 June (16 shops).

Surveyed shops were classified into five market types. Meat outlets were the most common (12 shops, 36.4%), followed by Vegetable sellers (9, 27.3%) and Basic Food shops (7, 21.2%). The price-trend picture is overwhelmingly inflationary — Basic Food, Basic Commodities and Hygiene outlets all reported 100% of shops raising prices, while even Vegetable markets showed 77.8% increasing. Importantly, despite these price pressures, supply adequacy across all categories was reported as largely sufficient, indicating that the primary humanitarian concern is household affordability rather than physical stock availability.

Fresh vegetable prices showed the most balanced month-on-month movement of any category — 48.5% of observations rising and 48.5% falling — reflecting the arrival of the local vegetable season, which shopkeepers explicitly cited as easing prices. All prices are in New SYP per kilogram, reported as cheapest and highest values observed per shop.

Basic food staples showed the sharpest inflationary signal in the survey — 81.8% of basic food shops reported prices increasing vs. last month. Prices below are averages across reporting shops (cheapest and highest available price per shop). Items with fewer than 5 observations are marked indicative.

Meat prices span a wide range, from chicken at an average 282.9–396.4 New SYP/kg to sheep meat at 1,843–1,952 New SYP/kg. Meat was the most common shop type (12 shops, 36.4%), yet the only category where a significant share (41.7%) reported prices decreasing, reflecting mixed supply dynamics.

Utility and energy costs represent a critical indirect driver of food prices — fuel costs directly feed into transport expenses, which were the second most-cited price driver (58 total citations). Four shops per commodity reported utility prices, limiting precision; values should be read as indicative benchmarks.

Hygiene items were sold by 6 of the 33 surveyed shops (18.2%). All 6 hygiene shops reported price increases — a 100% increase rate, the joint highest of any category. Sanitary pads and baby diapers are critical non-food items for vulnerable households and warrant monitoring as part of the MPCA basket assessment.

Shopkeepers were asked to identify the main reasons behind recent price changes across three dimensions — vegetables, basic food, and general prices. Currency fluctuation and transport costs dominated across every market category, confirming that macroeconomic and logistics pressures, rather than local supply or demand shifts, are the primary drivers of the current inflationary trend.