Promises of a breakthrough in the dairy sector crisis

Following the appeal by Beqaa dairy farmers to the President of the Republic to put an end to the unprecedented fall in milk prices, the ministers of economy, industry and agriculture held a joint meeting on January 14 to discuss the matter. On the subject, L’Orient Le Jour daily cited a 2014 report by the EU funded LACTIMED project for promoting Mediterranean dairy products noting a fall to 15 thousand tons in the production of dairy products, cheeses and labneh during the period between 2003 and 2009, with a 9% drop in the domestic use of similar products in the same period. According to the Chamber of Commerce of Zahleh, Saeed Gedeon, one liter of milk has been sold recently between LBP 350 and 500 (USD 0.2-0.3) against a production price of LBP 800 (USD 0.53) and a selling price of LBP 1000 per liter of milk in 2014. Gedeon attributed this to a decreasing demand by dairy factories and a corresponding increase in the import of similar items from neighboring states and the EU, being facilitated by free trade agreements signed by the Lebanese government. In this respect, the Chairperson of Libanlait, Marc Waked, maintained that factories prefer imported powdered milk over the fresh locally-produced milk. And according to Customs figures, the size of powdered milk imported primarily from Sweden and France has reached nearly 6 thousand tons by the end of November, 2016 (at USD 15 million), which is equivalent to double the quantity imported back in 2012. Regarding liquid milk, it is imported chiefly from Saudi Arabia. The industry minister, Haj Hassan, revealed to L’Orient Le Jour that his ministry will halt as of February 1 the sale of unpacked labneh and cheeses, which will eventually rein in the smuggling of foreign goods and the closure of illegitimate factories. Haj Hassan added that his ministry, in cooperation with the ministry of agriculture, is seeking to reactivate the Committee in charge of the milk sector in order to discuss the pricing and the relationship between factories and milk producers. (L’Orient Le Jour, January 23, 2017)