As Safir daily reported in a feature on fig cultivation published yesterday an unprecedented rise in demand for Al Hasbani fruit this year in domestic markets, particularly by processing and packaging plants. As a result, the price of one kilogram of figs has risen to LBP 2500 (wholesale) and LBP 4000 (retail). It is to be noted that the production of this fruit recorded in the past a steady decline for various reasons, mainly due to the fact that the farmers in the area have forsaken growing this crop replacing it with olive plantations, and because of various climate-borne diseases that have affected it.
The newspaper cited agricultural cooperatives as saying that fig planting areas have shrunk to less than 70% during the past 10 years causing a 50% fall in production. Sources added that total production in the last five years slipped from nearly 100 tons per day, to around 40-50 tons only.
Meanwhile, deputy chief of the cooperative of arid-farming and beekeeping, Nuhad Abu Hamdan, expressed with disappointment with the lack of concern by government authorities to support this agriculture particularly in view of present depression hitting the olive harvest. He pointed out that assistance to local fig growers could be of great value to the inhabitants of border villages especially with the increasing demand and low cost of production. In this respect, one fig dealer Samer Hamdan underscored that presently supply is much lower than demand, while pointing out to frenzied demand from fig lovers and customers of popular souks or big shop marts, and to a larger extent from packaging and processing plants. (As Safir, September 2, 2015)
