Failure of first year experience of alternative sea export routing

In its issue of last Saturday, As Safir daily revealed that the first year of the alternative maritime export plan only brought farmers and merchants: further decline in agricultural exports, a buildup of financial losses, and stockpiling of production. According to the Syndicate of Exporters and Importers of Vegetables and Fruits in Lebanon, the fall in exports during 2015 exceeded 30% as compared to the year 2014. 

As Safir pointed out that while exports of Lebanese potato found their ways via Ro-Ro vessels, it only did so at unprecedented high costs. The remaining varieties of agricultural products namely fruits and vegetables experienced what exporters described as the “the ordeal of the long journey”, which lasted sometimes between 9 to 25 travel days. The lengthy trip, they grieved, was enough to ruin tons of shipped products which were thrown out in into the sea. Meanwhile, agricultural goods that arrived safe and largely unspoiled could not beat the competition and therefore were sold at very low prices in order to cut down on financial losses.

For more insight on the subject, the newspaper spoke to the President of the Syndicate, Naim Khalil, who maintained that the cost incurred on the Lebanese exporter per each sea shipment amounted to a net of USD2500, after deducting the value of the government subsidy according to the alternative export plan. Likewise, agriculture engineer, Jalal George Toom, explained that difficulties encountered were not only associated with the assigned sea lines and arrival schedules, but had much to do with the stringent handling facilities in Lebanese and Arab sea ports, particularly Jordanian ports. He went on to say that custom and handling fees were higher in value that those of exported products. In figures term, the newspaper pointed out that the total value of one potato shipment container of some 30 tons and of a minimum price of USD350 per ton, equaled some USD10500 for the entire shipment, while additional fees cost inside the Jordanian markets exceeded USD20 thousand for the same container. Accordingly, the cost price of one kilogram of potato amounts to nearly LBP1000, whereas the price of one kilogram in Jordan was LBP750, resulting in a loss of LBP250 per each Kg. (As Safir, January 9, 2016