New ad-hoc ministerial decision to tackle the problem of marketing agricultural produce

Whilst farmers continue to face problems in marketing their produce at the onset of every season, the Ministry of Agriculture continues to adopt ad-hoc and erroneous decisions to address the problem.  Indeed, following the decision of the current Minister of Agriculture, Akram Shehayeb, to reverse his earlier decision to freeze import of fruits and vegetables from Syria in view of the inability to apply this decision, the Minister has now decided to impose a prior authorisation for the import of apples, pears, and frozen potato.  This decision should be in force all year long.  However, this improvised decision came about yesterday following the meeting of the Minister with a delegation of farmers presided by Ibrahim Tarshishi and who requested a ban on imports of such produce.  For his part, the president of the association of Lebanese farmers, Antoine Howayek, noted in a statement yesterday that the "responsibility for the crisis in marketing the apple produce rests primarily with Minister Shehayeb" who has not worked seriously to approve a series of measures which would salvage the harvest and bring back the competitiveness of Lebanese apples through decreasing its costs through subsidising its transportation costs to the Arab region as was the practice before.  To be noted, farmers from Akkar had complained of severe losses because of inability to move their produce given the challenges faced in export. On the other hand, statistics of agricultural exports issued by the Chamber of Trade, Industry and Agriculture in Zahleh showed an increase in agricultural exports.  This increase is unprecedented since the start of the Syrian crisis.  Indeed, the agricultural licenses issued by the Chamber in Zahleh reached 3402 between the periods of 2/1/2016 and up to 18/7/2016 compared to 3304 for the same period last year, while the rise in total value of agricultural exports, compared to the same period last year, soared to 97%. According to the Chamber, this increase in due to the monetary increase in the value of agricultural exports as well as the increase in the volume of products exported via maritime means. (Assafir, Al-akhbar, Al-Diyar and L’Orient le Jour 17 & 21 September 2016)