Agriculture in Lebanon: Big losses due to imports of fertilizers

One of the main challenges of agriculture in Lebanon is the almost complete absence of local fertilizer production, Al Akhbar daily reported on Saturday. The market’s need to import chemical and organic fertilizers is combined with the near to the ground exchange rate of the Lebanese Lira against the US dollar and the obstacles facing production and export lines in producing countries due to the Corona pandemic. The import figures of chemical fertilizers that poison food and the environment are frightening, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in the last ten years alone. The highest price per ton imported in 2019 was USD 272, Al Akhbar wrote. On the other hand, and in a simple calculation, the Lebanese daily discard between 3.5 to 4 thousand tons of organic waste out of a total 5 to 7 thousand tons of waste, that is more than 2000 tons of organic fertilizers. Therefore, Lebanese lose nearly USD 544 thousand every day (without counting in the cost of manufacture), Al Akhbar concluded. (Al Akhbar, May 9, 2020)