Dairy farmers organized on May 25 a symbolic sit-in at Halba Square in the North demanding the protection of national production and the enforcement of tax duties on imported milk and dairy products. During the protest, the head of the Cooperative of Milk Producers in Dreib, Akkar, Joseph Abdullah, grieved five years of suffering of the sector visibly seen in the decline in prices of fresh milk. He attributed this to the lack of policies aimed to protect Lebanese farmers, pointing out that agricultural agreements signed between Lebanon and foreign countries do not serve the interests of local farmers and bluntly encroach on domestic production. Protesters appealed to the three heads of the state to salvage the situation by pressuring for the enforcement of customs tariffs on imported milks, powdered milk and dairy products. For the same demands, and in cooperation with the General Union of Agricultural Syndicates, fresh milk producers and cattle breeders staged a sit-in on May 24 in front of the agriculture ministry in Zahle. They urged concerned parties to increase customs by 50% on all imported powdered milks and to control borders to stop smuggled goods into Lebanese territory. (Al Diyar, Al Mustaqbal, May 25, 27, 2019)