Reimbursement of apple growers and the plight of potato growers in Akkar

The newly-appointed minister of economy and trade, Raed Khury, demanded in a letter to the Higher Relief Council last week that it releases the funds allocated to help apple growers. To recall, a ministerial decree issued in October, 2016, required subsidizing apple production as such, LBP 5 thousand per crate. In the meantime, following a meeting in Halba with the agriculture minister, Akkar potato farmers urged him to halt the entry into the country of low-quality Egyptian potatoes, and to find markets for some 60 thousand tons of local surplus production, as they anticipated this year’s harvest to reach some 100 thousand tons. In this context, the president of the Potato Farmers’ Cooperative’s Association, Omar Hayek, warned of an imminent disaster if external importation of agricultural goods is not regulated or foreign markets for domestic production secured. (Al Diyar, February 17 and 19, 2017)