The decline of tobacco cultivation in Lebanon threaten 20000 families

Many farmers in South Lebanon have stopped growing tobacco during the Israeli occupation and wars, having to flee their land. However, they resumed the cultivation after the liberation in 2000, encouraged by government’s subsidized purchasing prices, thus attracting more farmers. This arrival of new farmers prompted the Finance Ministry and the tobacco monopoly known as Regie Libanaise du Tabac & Tombacs to raise the ceiling of production in the South to 5,400,000 kilograms annually. However, tobacco growing started again to decline in the past few years because of increasing costs. Nearly 14,000 farmers and their family are involved in tobacco growing against a peak of 16500 farmers. To be added to the total is 10,000 other families in the North and Beqaa regions. With the start of each harvest season, tobacco growers and the newly established the Tobacco Growers Association in the South, reiterate their annual demands aiming to protect their livelihoods. One of the encountered problems according to the Chief of the association, Khalil Deeb is that here are some 3,000 licensed tobacco licensed farmers who in fact are not actually producing. These pseudo farmers in fact purchase the surplus production from farmers- since the Regie has fixed the ceiling of production per acre at 100 kg- leaving farmers with no choice but to sell at cheapest prices, not exceeding LBP 7000, or totally loosing by not selling at those prices.  Deeb reiterated the five key demand of the Association: fix tobacco permits at four acres per farmer; raise the average price of one kilogram of tobacco leaf from LBP 12,500 to 15,000; put an end to the practice of discounting prices during harvest delivery; register farmers and their families in the social security fund and compensate farmers for losses during 2006 Israeli aggression. (As Safir, 16 & 19 March 2015)