On National Day of Food Industries calls for the up scaling of the sector

Under the sponsorship of the industry minister, Dr. Hussein Haj Hassan, the Syndicate of Owners of Food Industries organized yesterday the 10th edition of the ‘National Day of Food Industries’ at the HORECA Hospitality Fair in Biel Exhibition Center. On the occasion, the President of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, Dr. Fadi Gemayel, stressed the association’s serious interest in developing the capacities of the various industrial sectors, most notably the food industries. “The challenges of globalization combined with the particularities and high prices of manufacture in Lebanon, require more specialization and uniqueness in the quality of goods we export to the world markets,” Gemayel said, adding, “this alone calls for greater cooperation between sectoral establishments.” Likewise, the president of the Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL), Nabil Itani, maintained that the food industry has constantly proved its competence, particularly in the past couple of years. Exports in the sector, Itani noted, have reached record high levels in 2014, as a result of the efforts by owners of establishments to keep up with the latest international standards in production and packaging. For his part, Haj Hassan seized the opportunity to propose a comprehensive strategy to achieve the desired economic growth through giving the industry the resourceful contribution it needs over the next 10 years. This, Haj Hassan explained, is based on “the well-known facts related to the value of deficit in trade and budget, unemployment, public debt, the size of economy and the large discrepancy between the volume of deposits in banks and the GDP.” He urged the government to work for increasing the size of industry, and food industries in particular, and to encourage the establishment of third, fourth and fifth category industries, up to doubling the size of the food industry over the next ten years. (As Safir, Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, April 7, 2016)