Growing demand on Lebanese tobacco because of Syria war amidst high production costs

In its edition of August 19, the Daily Star newspaper highlighted the industry of tobacco in Lebanon which flourished markedly with the beginning of the war in neighboring Syria and the resultant shutdown of many tobacco businesses in the country. To shed more light on the subject, the Daily Star spoke to George Hobeika, senior board member of the state-owned Regie Libanaise des Tabacs et Tombac, better known as Regie, who stressed that the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has more than tripled the consumption of made-in-Lebanon tobacco in five years. Cedars, Hobeika mentioned, was particularly boosted because it is similar to the widely smoked Hamra cigarettes of Syria, adding that Regie sales were estimated at USD 1 billion in 2012. Hobeika also revealed that a technical team from Italy is currently installing state-of-the-art equipment that is expected to speed up production up to nearly 12,000 cigarettes per week. On the other hand, Hobeika explained to the Daily Star reporter that domestic demand on Cedars has outweighed the size of its production, which temporarily weakens plans for exports.

In parallel, Al Mustaqbal newspaper reported that the tobacco industry in Akkar is regressing on a yearly basis due to the high cost of production and to the impact of the climate change. Despite this, the newspaper wrote, this agriculture remains the most viable among similar subsidized agricultures particularly when the harvest is abundant and the prices set by the Regie were equivalent to the cost of production. In this respect, tobacco farmers who kicked off the harvest season, have all agreed that the exceptional efforts they exert hardly correspond to the current prices set by the Regie. The current prices are estimated at LBP 3.5 million per each single mandatory license. )The Daily Star, Al Mustaqbal, August 19, 21, 2016(