Winners of the dairy production competition in Zahle: Ain Al Areesh women cooperative and Qebb Elias dairy factory

Two emerging enterprises won on Friday the dairy production competition organized by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Zahleh in collaboration with the XX Investment Nework and the European Coalition Network.  A number of farmers took part in this event and exhibited their production to a jury which included Lebanese and European experts.  The projects presented included a variety of special dairy products and the winners were Ain Al Areesh women cooperative Aita Fokhar and Qebb Elias dairy factory. The first enterprise produces green Kechek whilst the second produces organic goat Labneh.  Each of these received a USD 10,000 prize in addition to technical and marketing support for 2 months to be able to complete their project.

To be noted that dairy products were selected to be the theme of this competition after a study that showed that each Lebanese individual consumes some 189 liters a milk yearly which makes Lebanese one of the highest consumer of dairy worldwide.  The value of production of the dairy sector is estimated at 2.2 billion dollars which constitutes 5.7% of total agricultural production.

 

(Source: L’Orient le Jour 17 January,2015)