With the nearing apple harvesting season, An Nahar newspaper noted that apple growers in Ehden, Tannurine, Bsharreh, Laqluq and all over Mount Lebanon and parts of the Beqaa, are going through the same anxiety due to the absence of marketing and lack of official support to their produce. This is further compounded by the absence of agricultural bodies which would undertake extension services. Apple grower, Hanna Frangieh, noted that this agriculture provided a good livelihood in the past. Today, according to Frangieh, apple growers are at the mercy of merchants who are only interested in profits and who refuse to buy directly from apple orchards under the guise that transportation costs are high with the closure of land transportation routes. Frangieh also noted that local municipalities are helping to some extent but are unable to bear the costs alone in the absence of official support. With regards to local initiatives, An Nahar highlighted the “Apple Araba Workshop” set up by the “Cedar Mountains Association” as well as by the Bsharreh Municipality and Shapas company in collaboration with USAID, in the village of Bayt Munther in Bsharreh. This initiative aimed at providing a solution to the problem of apple marketing in Bsharreh. Other initiatives include the Apple Festival organized annually by the municipality in Zghorta and where producers sell apples directly to consumers. Within the same vein, the article spoke about apple growers in Donniyeh who took to the streets again this year protesting the negligence of the state and demanding that internal and external markets be found. (An Nahar, August 30 2018)