Shock and awe

"And how is the U.S. planning to invade and conquer additional agricultural markets?"

Read in full this very well researched article by my friend Rania Masri.

Add it to the bill

Update on the agricultural losses of the July 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. In the Bekaa alone: 5,000 farmers affected, $20 millions in material losses.

Free (trading) Lebanon

The latest on Lebanon's accession to WTO and USAID's role.

Land grab

تؤلف نسبة الاملاك الخاصة من الأراضي الصالحة للزراعة في لبنان 84.6% من مجموع الأراضي. وذلك بحسب الدراسة التي أجرتها وزارة الزراعة تحت عنوان «الزراعة في أرقام»، وتناولت فيها توزع الملكيات الزراعية وفقاً لوضعها القضائي. تليها الأراضي ذات الملكية الأميرية بـ 12.1%، ثم 1.3% للأراضي الخاضعة للأوقاف، لتنخفض الى 1.0% للملكية العامة، و1.0% للأراضي المصنفة ضمن
المشاعات.

Arable land in Lebanon, from a recent study by the ministry of agriculture: 84.6% under private ownership, 12.1% as Amiri lands (another form of private ownership), 1.3% wakf (religious lands), 1% mashaa (municipal or state land).

This is the potential for ownership for those who lack resources for farming, the landless share croppers: 1%. The situation is worsened by the fact that 50% of the arable land is owned by 0.1% of the people, by the absence of land use planning and by the lack of security for farmers renting land.

Private property is sacred in Lebanon, and land reform is a big taboo. Big landowners are ready to fight it out (as they now do) to protect their assets, the sacred heirloom that has been in their family for generations. One should really look into how did land come into private ownership at the end of the ottoman empire. Most of the land was then owned by the ottoman state and farmed out to feudal landlords of various sizes and appellations: Emirs, Beiks, Sheikhs, and other pompous titles. There is even a Marquis: the Marquis de Freige (a papal title, I am told) and who is a big landowner, and a member of parliament in the Hariri block. Surprised?

Southern water

ذكرت صحيفة «معاريف» الإسرائيلية، أمس، أن الجيش الإسرائيلي يراقب أعمال بناء البيوت في جنوب لبنان، بمحاذاة الشريط الحدودي مع إسرائيل، وهو يخشى من أن يستخدمها حزب الله كمواقع عسكرية ومراقبة تحت غطاء أنها منازل لمدنيين لبنانيين.
وقالت الصحيفة إن عملية بناء مكثفة لمئات المباني المحاذية للسياج، بدأت تظهر في الأشهر الثلاثة الأخيرة. لكنها أقرّت بأن «هدف هذه المباني غير واضح»، مشيرةً إلى وجود مخاوف لدى الجيش من أن تكون هذه المنازل مواقع خفيّة لحزب الله. واستشهدت الصحيفة ببناء عشرات المباني والمصانع، خلال الأشهر الأخيرة، في القطاع السياجي المحاذي للمطلة، وبعضها في أماكن لم تكن مأهولة من قبل اللبنانيين.
ونقلت عن مصادر عسكرية إسرائيلية قولها إنه «ما من شك في أن هناك وتيرة بناء عالية، وقد بدأ في الفترة الأخيرة ظهور عدد متزايد من المصانع التي يتم بناؤها بمحاذاة الحدود، لكن هذا لا يفسر شيئاً، ونحن نراقب هذه التطورات ولا نستخف بها».
ومما أثار الدهشة، بحسب «معاريف»، أن بعض المباني تم بناؤها في أمكنة قريبة من مصادر المياه في المطلة والغجر. وتم أيضاً «تشييد مبنى كبير، لم يعرف ما هو هدفه، على بعد كيلومترين من المنطقة المأهولة من كفركلا، وعلى بعد 300 متر فقط من الحدود مع إسرائيل».
ونقلت «معاريف» عن سلطات المياه الإسرائيلية قولها «نحن نشعر بأن استهلاك المياه في الأعلى (لبنان) يتزايد، وتجري برامج لاستغلال عالٍ لمصادر المياه، وإن هناك احتمالاً للمس بموضوع كميات وحتى بنوعية المياه التي تصل إلى إسرائيل».
كما نقلت الصحيفة عن رئيس اتحاد المزارعين دوبي أميتي قوله إن «هناك العديد من المباني التي يصعب اليوم معرفة نيات اللبنانيين منها، وهو ما قد يبدو تمويهاً لشيء ما، لكن شعوري الشخصي أن بعض المباني يستخدم كمصدر ضخ للمياه التي تصل من الحاصباني والوزاني».
وختمت الصحيفة أنه «في الوقت الذي يتروّى فيه الجيش من ربط طفرة البناء بحزب الله، فإن سكان المطلة القدماء الذين يعرفون جيرانهم لا يشكّون بذلك». ونقلت عن أحد المزارعين في المستوطنة قوله «ليس لديّ شك بأن الذراع الطويلة لحزب الله هي من تدفع سكان جنوب لبنان للبناء بالقرب من السياج»، مضيفاً «لقد حددنا لأنفسنا بألّا نسمح لأيّ أمر بأن يضرّ بعملنا وبروتين حياتنا القائم في الوقائع الجديدة منذ حرب لبنان الثانية».

عدد الجمعة ١٠ آب

From today's Al-Akhbar, a small news item within the article on Ron Arad (that's why i didn't link). This item is interesting: it says that Maarev has reported that the israeli army is following closely the building of "large houses" near the Israeli border (note: in Lebanon), which are causing concern as the goal of these buildings is "unclear" (???). Maarev also reports from the israeli water authority its concerns about what it perceives as an increase in water consumption in ...Lebanon, which will affect the quantity of water that reaches Israel and also its quality. One of the farmers in the colonial outpost of metullah said he believes these houses are camouflaged pumping stations. He adds that the colonizers in Metullah know their Lebanese neighbors well, and that they have no doubt this is a hizbullah conspiracy to use...Lebanese water.

Now this is really interesting because it brings the whole issue of southern water back to the surface: there is no doubt that Israel's colonial outposts in northern Palestine (moshavs and kibbutz) are in dire need for water, especially for irrigation, if they are to continue fulfilling their function (see previous post on Aytaroun and moshav avivim). This water comes from only one place: Lebanon, especially the hasbani river watershed. The water allocation between Lebanon and Israel is still regulated by the Johnston agreement of 1955. But Israel has regularly used force to prevent the Lebanese from using their share of water. Here's a self explanatory excerpt from a report published on the UN foreign Policy Forum:

"...the potential for future tension over the use of water from the Hasbani river. The Hasbani flows down the western flank of the tri-border pocket, passing Ghajar and crossing the Lebanon-Israel border three kilometers south of the village. It feeds into the Upper Jordan and runs into the Sea of Galilee, the Jewish state's largest supply of surface water. The Wazzani springs beside Ghajar are the only source of water for the river during the hot dry summer months.

Last March, the Council for the South installed a small pump and a pipe 10 centimeters in diameter to supply drinking water from the Wazzani springs to the nearby village of Arab Louaize. In response, Israel warned that unchecked pumping of the Hasbani's water could spark a war.

Tempers flared again in June when a local farmer, Hussein Abdullah, announced that he intended to pump water from the Hasbani, one kilometer below the Wazzani springs, via an 18-centimeter pipe to irrigate some 3,000 dunums of land he owned nearby.

Although the amount of water being diverted from the river is inconsequential, the UN is aware that, given Israel's acute water shortage, an argument over the Hasbani could spark a more serious confrontation than the recent heated rhetoric.

An attempt in the 1960s to divert the Hasbani away from Israel led to a series of military confrontations, culminating in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The figures on the Hasbani's water flow are vague, varying between 110 million cubic meters (mcm) per year to 146mcm. The 1955 Johnston Agreement on regional water sharing which was never fully ratified allocated to Lebanon 35mcm per year of water from the Hasbani. But Lebanon is not believed to be utilizing more than 10mcm per year."

Israel has bombed countless times governmental installations to pump Lebanese water, as well as small scale farmer's pumps. As my friend Angry Arab would say: "This is Zionism".

Coops in trouble

I'm blogging in full this article from the Daily Star on the difficulties facing cooperatives in Lebanon. these coops were started by development projects, then abandonned as the project ended (project lifetime...the usual initiative killer). So the best thing is to create...a new development project to deal with the marketing. I dont exactly see how they intend to market, but I can give them a few pointers:

1. Dont go to supermarkets, establish your alternative system. Go to souk el Tayyeb, it is a great venue to kickstart the chain.
2. Get yourself a quality label: ISO, HACCP, Organic, anthing that can give confidence to the customer.
3. sometimes you just have the wrong product, even if it sounds romantic and exotic, it is not consumed by the customers you are trying to address, and it is available to those who want it. Example: kishk, there is plenty of it accessible to the people who eat kishk, but there is none available to those who dont want it, so dont try filling that gap. There are tons of cheaper jams on the markets, locall or imported, and with a brand confidence level that is much higher.
4. seek to understand ALL the components of the economic supply chain (filiere) and indentify the most limiting factor, and work on it. it may not be marketing, although marketing may be A limiting factor. Sometimes it is the relationship between the people, sometimes the availability of raw materials, sometimes the access to resources.



"With imported food stuffs crowding the shelves of Lebanon's large supermarket chains, and Western fast-food franchises proliferating in the capital, it has become increasingly difficult for local agricultural cooperatives to access more lucrative city markets.

Market access has been even more difficult for the dozens of female-led rural cooperatives set up under the Agriculture Ministry's 1999 initiative. The collective farming units producing traditional staples ranging from kishik to pumpkin preserves got off to a running start initially, but few have managed to become self-sustaining, let alone profitable, since the sellers remain isolated from potential buyers.

The Women Economic Empowerment Project (WEEP) partnered with the Canadian International Development Agency and Oxfam Quebec in 2006 to launch a marketing branch in Beirut to sell the cooperative's products to consumers and supermarket buyers in the capital.
The WEEP's Marketing Unit identified rural women's cooperatives in 14 different villages in the Bekaa region for the first phase of its project, helping them find sustainable markets for their products and transport goods to Beirut to develop a viable customer base. The goal is for the businesses and the villages to prosper, explained WEEP projects coordinator, Natalie Chemally.
"They say they don't have contact points to sell products in Beirut and that if they do have a contact point, how can they reach it?" Chemally said last week at the opening of the Marketing Unit's headquarters on the first floor of the Mansourati building in Mathaf.

The WEEP exhibited products from rural women's cooperatives at local and regional trade shows in 2006, and moved on to the second phase of the marketing strategy with the opening of a permanent distribution point in the capital.

Retailers and consumers alike will now be able to purchase kishik balls stuffed with red peppers, organic fruit jam, pastries filled with yogurt and herbs, and a host of other traditional food stuffs whose recipes have been passed down through generations in rural Lebanon.
If the Marketing Unit succeeds in selling Bekaa products to an increasingly discerning urban customer-base, the WEEP will take on 22 new cooperatives from North and South Lebanon.

Unlike other agri-food ventures financed by international donors, the WEEP marketing unit is geared towards the local market first and foremost, with exports a distant possibility.
Chemally acknowledged that co-op goods have a long way to go before they can compete with established organic, local brands like Green Valley that dominate the shelves of Lebanese supermarkets. But they are not looking to capture a huge share of the local market just yet, she said.

"We know we are not going to be a Wadih-Al-Khader [Green Valley]" Chemally admitted. "We are just trying to mobilize the co-ops to compete in a decent fair-trade market."
Meanwhile WEEP will continue offering technical assistance to women in rural Lebanon so they can participate in the labor force.

"Individual women or local women's associations decide they want to do something on their own, so WEEP helps them define and structure their own goals," Chemally said.
The organization provides start-up capital to women with viable business plans, and then gradually teaches them the skills to become independent, assisting with funding proposals for potential donors.

Recently WEEP organized a hairdressing-training session for 16 girls in Mashat Hammoud, a village in the Akkar region. Half of the participants are now operating their own hair salons now, Chemally offered of a typical WEEP project.

The goal is always to "build their capacities to become more economically autonomous and form and maintain their own grassroots organizations."

The Marketing Unit headquarters are located on the first floor of the Masourati Building, above the Misubishi/Kassab Auto Shop in the Mathaf area of Beirut. More information on WEEP, CRTDA and the Marketing Unit can be obtained via email at elawen@crtda.org or by phone at 01-391196."

Fresh fault

"In the 6th century AD, John of Ephesus wrote of a cataclysmic event that devastated coastal Lebanon: "The sea withdrew and retreated from the coastal cities of Phoenicia for a distance of nearly two miles.... A tremendous surge of the sea rushed up to return to its original depths." Tripoli was swamped. Beirut took almost 1,300 years to recover.

Now an international team of geophysicists has traced the origins of the July 9, 551, tsunami to an earthquake along a previously unknown fault roughly four miles off Lebanon's coast. The fault traces the coast for up to 90 miles. The data come from a research cruise in 2003 during which the scientists used high-resolution sonar to map the contours of the sea floor. The evidence shows up as relatively fresh fault scarps along the ocean bottom.

The team also examined stretches of coast whose beaches rise in stair-step fashion out of the Medi­terranean – indicators of past quakes that pushed up Lebanon's coast. They estimate that major quakes come in clusters, separated by 1,500 to 1,750 years of relative calm. If that's true, they say, the region is long overdue for a major seismic event. The results appear in the August issue of the journal Geology. "

Now milk- and other stuff

The proof of globalization? easy: prices of milk and dairy products have increased by 20% since the beginning of 2007, and it is set to increase a further 20% according to the head of the milk and dairy products importer in Lebanon. This is in great part due to the lifting of subsidies on dairy products in the EU as well as the increase in the Euro. But the replacement of forages with biofuel crops and the droughts also have their little role to play. I have blogged earlier about this worlwide increase in price, and you can put the pieces together if you search the blog under "milk". Now price increases may be a tad over exagerated (cartels have to make a living too you know) because the EU subsidies were at 27% and they have not yet been completely lifted, but there has been panic buying of milk world wide, and we are feeling it in Lebanon. This good report by Sahar Nasser in the excellent economic page of al-akhbar tells us that the price of one ton of milk rose from $2200 to $5500 and that of butter from $1800 to $5000. These increases are over 120%. The local retail prices have not completely caught up yet because of the stocks available in storage.

At the same time, the wheat mills owners cartel are refusing the government subsidy of $50 per ton and are threatening to dramatically raise the price of flour they sell to the breadmaking industry if the government does not provide them with a subsidy of at least $100 per ton. Labour union leaders are calling this "a blackmail by the mills cartel" (made of just 10 people). The government allows this monopoly to exist, as I've said earlier.

But now where does this leave us? in looming crisis. Hear me out:

Successive Lebanese government have acted knowingly and cold bloodedly to destroy the farming sector in Lebanon (see The roots of inequality and other feature articles). They still do that by signing skewed bilateral free trade agreements. This government in particular has been very, very active at that, and there are many posts below to show it.

There was a point to the super opening of markets: locally, it facilitated trade so that merchants could make money. But aspects of it are more sinister. Food import created dependency, which was very welcome by the US and the EU, as it facilitated control over governments. The same tactic was used in other Arab countries, like Tunisia or egypt: if they do not abide by the day's orders, trading is rendered more difficult, prices increase, bread or food riots ensue, and government become shaky until the donors send in food aid, or governments are allowed to pay subsidies. Subsidies are by the way only allowed to be given to the rich, and only on imported products. Monopolistic import cartels are the ones that benefit from them, as they are the trojan horses of the global economic order in the country. In Lebanon, the head of the grain mills union (cartel) also doubles up as the vice president of the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce. For more details about this, see Rania Masri's excellent article in Al-Adab (if you can read Arabic-Rania, could you please blog the english version?).

So we now have a country's whose food sovereignty has been destroyed (note well, not food security, but food sovereignty, which is the right to decide what a nation grows and what it eats), and suddenly world food prices begin to climb.

The good news is that there is a lot that can still be done. Yes, as we are starting to hear, this will help create a revival in agriculture. Already, the increase in local food prices is making more people move back into agriculture (i myself am buying 20 bee colonies and 4 cows, but that's a diffferent issue). However, there are 2 excessively important issues here:

1. The adjustment period is going to be difficult. i would love to be able to say "the government should brace itself and prepare safety nets" and believe what I say, but this government and the dynasty it originates from has not shown any ability and willingness to do that. It has imposed one of the most unjust and primitive form of taxations, and its idea for collecting money is to create taxes that affect mostly the poor, like raising fuel prices. But someone must step in and take action. I hate the idea, but I can see here a great opportunity for sectarian-political leadership to enhance the already near total surogacy of their constituency by creating sectarian-based support systems (Hizbullah's Jihad al Binaa is one of them, and USAID supported NGOs are another- you didn't know that the US is now a Lebanese sect, and ambassador Feltman is its patriarch?).

2. The revival of farming isn't going to happen just like that. It must be promoted and prepared, and must benefit the poor and the small as well as the rich and the big. Sustainable practices must be adopted in order to mitigate the negative impacts of farming. Clear policies for regaining food sovereignty -making resourecs available to all is one of them- must be adopted. Otherwise, this opportunity will turn into another painful debacle.

Of course, a favorable government is absolutely essential for that. One that protects farmers and citizens, and not just the arms of the resistance and its leadership.

Do you think they'll talk about this in the next round of dialogue? if it happens?

Innocenti

The impact of global warming as well as the shift from food cereals to biofuels is starting to be felt in Lebanon: bread makers have threatened to raise the price of bread, so the government stepped in to subsidize wheat prices by selling 50,000 tons at the price of $225 per ton as opposed to $300 price in Beirut. Wheat import in Lebanon is monopolized by a cartel of 12 mills, owned by 10 people. The head of the breadmakers union accuses the government of committing a crime by subsidizing the cartel. The head of the consumers association calls the cartel a group of vampires and blames the minister of Economy and Trade Sami Haddad (him again) for subsidizing it. The cartel: we are falsely accused.

In a nutshell

"In addition to the importance of an economic dialogue in itself, it is obvious that the European sponsor has new and profound ideas as well. These ideas that have been abandoned by the economic reformers in Lebanon. Although the Lebanese government have had presented social and development dimensions included in their paper in Paris III, it was dominated by one issue, which is the deteriorating public monetary position.

the European dialogue has passed new horizons towards reform. It tackled "an entire vision for economic and social development" that equally concentrates on economic development, social justice and regional development. On the contrary of the reform program that stressed on development not taking into consideration the limitations of this development to areas and to a lucky segment of citizens.

This also submits us to a political rather than an economic problem, linking between short term and long term worries of the state. This is not what the Europeans need because anyway they were the ones who accepted and supported the current Lebanese cabinet with its political policy, and the economic on e as well. Europe was the main supporter to the cabinet's program that was presented in Paris III. So could the wisdom of the head of the European Union find a way out from this contradiction?"

Bad translation of an article in al hayat by economist Ghassan al Ayyash. In a nutshell:

1. The lebanese government(s) through the ages couldn't have cared less about social equity.
2. The current siniora government epitomizes this trend.
3. The european union wants to teach the lebanese how to care for the poor.
4. But the EU also wants to support the current siniora government.
5. So they will fail- Amen

Civil disagreement

Different reporting styles: on the rise of civil society in Lebanon: Al-Akhbar's title: "More than 20,000 NGOs in Lebanon, are we going to have one NGO per citizen?" The article, in Arabic goes on to expose the exponential increase in proselytizing Islamic NGOs in the North of Lebanon in the past year, all granted legality by Ministers Fatfat and al Sabeh.

The Daily Star article celebrates civil society, and it support to the displaced during the July war and its efforts to promote nationalism (which sometimes sounds like chauvinism with a hint of bigotry, like Lunbani w' bass: "only Lebanese", as if being anything else makes you a lesser human being, and unable to contribute to civil peace).

Yes master

I'm blogging in full this excellent article by Lysandra Ohrstrom from the Daily Star (one wonders why she is still there.) Lysandra (whom I do not know) often addresses issues of relevance to trade and small industries and has excellent insights. Read how the current government policies (and previous ones) reject the idea of any intervention in the sectors in order to favor import and trade. Read how their vision for Lebanon is one of services with no production. Read how they blame family agribusinesses rather than addressing (US and EU) market distorting subsidies. Read how the US, directly and through its subservient cronies has decided how the economy of Lebanon will be: services and laissez faire. Read how the capitalists and businessmen of Lebanon are begging the state for some intervention but how the state will not intervene because the US Department of Commerce thinks it should not. This government defers to the US in all matters: local politics, economy and timing of the toilet breaks. You should have heard US ambassador Feltman give the Lebanese people yesterday his views on the Lebanese constitution and on the timing of the presidential elections. One word can describe him: High Commissionner.

Global market changes face of Lebanese economyInvestors focus attention on value-added sectorBy Lysandra Ohrstrom Daily Star staffThursday, July 19, 2007

BEIRUT: As Lebanon's drive toward integration in the global market intensifies, foreign investors are shifting their attention to value-added sectors of the local economy, leaving industry and agriculture to struggle against high production costs and competitively priced imports. Pharmaceuticals, Internet communication technology (ICT), and insurance were identified as Lebanon's "best prospect sectors" in the 2007 annual Country Commercial Guide report released by the US Department of Commerce last week.

The vice president of the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce, Arslan Sinno, said the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession process and multi-lateral free trade agreements with European and Arab countries have promoted the liberalization of the economy, forcing business leaders to take stock of promising sectors for development that may be able to compete at the global level.

"In view of the European neighborhood policy, the GAFTA (Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement), and TIFA (Trade and Investment Framework Agreement) with America, it will be more difficult for smaller businesses to compete with industrial giants in Western countries so they are focusing on value-added products that rely on human resources," Sinno told The Daily Star in a phone interview Wednesday.

Multinational corporations are increasingly subcontracting local software firms for their computer programming needs, he said, leading to some early "success stories" in the nascent ICT industry. Meanwhile, international film distributors are commissioning tri-lingual Lebanese for film translation and subtitles.

But other productive sectors have not fared as well in their effort to gain a larger share of Western markets. Agri-food exporters, for instance, have attempted to appeal to the growing appetite for ethnic and Mediterranean foods in Europe and America - which has expanded beyond the Middle Eastern diaspora - said Sinno, but the absence of legislation promoting mergers between family-owned SME's has discouraged the consolidation that is necessary to reduce prices in foreign markets.

"We can't have 12 separate canning companies competing for a share in the same market, they need to merge and find financing so they can rival products from other countries like Cyprus who produce the same goods," Sinno explained.

Though multi-national labels like Nestle have shown minor interest in acquiring local food manufacturing labels, very few energy-intensive industries have managed to attract foreign capital or retain qualified personnel - especially for specialized products.

Industrialists are not averse to the further opening of the Lebanese market to international products, insisted Wajih al-Bizri, the vice president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, but they need the government to mimic neighboring countries by creating industrial cities equipped with sewage systems, electricity and irrigation networks, and roads in less expensive, under-developed rural areas of the country.

"Lebanon never had any barriers to trade to begin with so industrialists are not afraid of [an open market]," he explained.

"What worries us is unfair competition from countries with low cost of energy.

"The [government] leased land to the private sector in Choueifat and Akkar and called them industrial zones, but they did not provide any infrastructure," Bizri said.I

ncreased openness has also contributed to the accelerating brain drain from Lebanon to Gulf countries, forcing industrialists to contend with an absence of qualified personnel with knowledge of international markets. Since the domestic market cannot meet the salary requirements commanded by middle and upper management in the Gulf, the quality of local products has suffered.

Though the Lebanese business community is calling for increased government intervention in the economy - however minor - the US Department of Commerce the views the state's laissez-faire investment policy as one of the country's biggest draws.

A multi-lingual workforce and media content providers in the country and the government's plans to upgrade the ICT infrastructure will offer significant opportunities to foreign investors, the department of commerce report said.

Meanwhile the pharmaceutical market generates $400 million a year in retail sales but products manufactured here account for less than five percent of total annual consumption, making Lebanon the biggest importer of prescription drugs in the Levant.

Insurance was also cited as an attractive sector for development since the demand for personal insurance policies and coverage for reconstruction work is projected to rise steadily.
The Lebanese service sector has shifted its gaze to global brands, with local branches of US franchises on the rise, despite declining purchasing power.

The report calls franchising "one of the fastest growing business sectors in Lebanon". Though domestic branches of global fast-food chains have proliferated most rapidly, the volume of clothing, retail, and car rental franchises has also risen, leading to the proposed creation of a union of Lebanese Franchisers this year.

Paul Ariss, head of the Restaurant, CafŽ, and Hotel Syndicate, expects the number of US food and restaurant franchises - there are currently at least a dozen different brands - to continue growing the future.

"Because the market is open, and people are aware of international brands there will always be a market for brands like Burger King, McDonald's, and KFC," he said.
"If they are still all doing well in Lebanon at a time like this other franchises will be encouraged to follow their example," Ariss said.

Endless litany

The great Litani river, the longuest river of Lebanon, the one with the largest watershed, the one Israel wants so badly that it went to war for it, the Litani is so polluted that at some places in the West Bekaa, all that is left from it is a large sewer where algae grows unchecked.

And this is not new: As early as 1937, the Sawt al Shaeb newspaper ran a list of request by local people complaining about the pollution of the water and demanding the Lebanese Government (under French Mandate) to provide the villages with clean drinking water and irrigation water.

Arabic article in al Akhbar

Keep your hands off farming!

"These targets far exceed the agricultural capacities of the industrial North. Europe would need to plant 70 percent of its farmland with fuel crops. The entire corn and soy harvest of the United States would need to be processed as ethanol and biodiesel. Converting most arable land to fuel crops would destroy the food systems of the North, so the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development countries are looking to the South to meet demand."

From a recent article in th IHT. It looks like everyone is now arming against agro-fuel (we should stop using the word biofuel, it gives a false impression that it is green and harmless). the article goes on:

"The rapid capitalization and concentration of power within the biofuels industry is extreme. Over the past three years, venture capital investment in biofuels has increased by 800 percent. Private investment is swamping public research institutions."

I have read in a brief piece of news in the Guardian that more than $70 billions were invested in wind and solar power and agro-fuel, up 43% on 2005. But what is really worrying is the fact that the South is now set to produce most of it, at the cost of its own food systems. In a talk he gave a few weeks ago, Lebanese opposition economist George Corm gave the example of agro-fuels as a direction in which the country's agricultural sector could go to rebuild its production sector. Now the good thing is that no one will listen to him, but I don't know if you realize how silly this proposal is. Just imagine how much imported diesel would be needed to pump deep, barely renewable underground water to make corn to make biofuel to export to the North.

Farming is too serious a sector to be managed by economists.

Israel destroys Lebanon but offers to help government

"KKL-JNF World Chairman Efi Stenzler has announced that as soon as Israel and Lebanon are on their way to establishing peaceful relations, he will be happy to extend KKL-JNF's international activities northwards and help the Lebanese government to rehabilitate its country's environment."

Israel's legacy

"In a country where agriculture accounts for seven percent of gross domestic product, the war and continuing threat from cluster bombs have caused losses to many in rural areas.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated last November that the conflict had caused losses of 280 million dollars in potential earnings."

Arabic halloum

Zeinab Ghosn from Al Safir picked the Halloum post and wrote a very good article on Geographic Indicators in today's Al Safir. (in Arabic)

Cutting their nose to spite their face

Further to my Aytaroun post, I thought it would be interesting to try to learn more about tobacco subsidies in Lebanon. I interviewed Asma Bazzi a graduate student in Environmental Policy, working under the guidance of Dr. Nader Kabbani from the Department of Economics at The American University of Beirut. Asma is writing a thesis on tobacco in South Lebanon. She told me the tobacco story.

Tobacco cultivation became a state monopoly started under the Ottoman Empire in 1884. The “Societe Anonyme de Régie Co-interessee Libano-Syrienne de Tabacs et des Tombacs” was created in 1935 and given effective legal monopoly of the tobacco trade in both countries. After independence, it became known as the Régie Libanaise des Tabacs et des Tombacs and retained the exclusive trading rights for tobacco imports and exports and local trade. The Régie has been under governmental control since 1991.

Tobacco subsidies were initiated by the French Mandatory Government in 1936 primarily for rural development purposes, especially to reduce rural-urban migration. Tobacco gained importance in the 60s and 70s, declined during the war and picked up again in 96-97, especially in the Southern qadas of Marjeyoun, Bint Jbeil and Sour.

Tobacco cultivation contributes to the livelihoods of 24,000 farmers, in addition to more than 1000 seasonal laborers. Moreover, the Régie counts 1,500 employees. In the year 2001, nearly 92,000 dunums (9,200 ha) were planted in the whole of Lebanon. 64% were in the South, 20% in the Bekaa and 16% in the North. During the same year, the South produced 5,800 tons of tobacco (62%), the Bekaa 1,870 tons (20%) and the North 1,740 tons (18%), for a total Lebanese production in 2001 of 9,410 tons. The best tobacco (Saada 6 variety) is grown in the South. The Bekaa grows Burley and Saada-6, and the North the low value Saada-33 also known as tombac (Régie data).

Most tobacco farmers are small and poor. Half of them plant less than 4 dunums (0.4 ha, just under 1 acre). The Régie only purchases tobacco planted by farmers having permits, and only one permit is allowed per family. A farmer cannot plant or sell tobacco without a permit from the Régie which specifies the area to be planted and the crop volume expected.

Tobacco is a very labor intensive crop, requiring 610 workdays per hectare per year. For comparison, cereals require 25 days per hectare per year, and irrigated vegetables cultivation 242 days per hectare per year. The gross income of the average 4 dunums plantation in the South was $3,210 per year in 1999, five times greater than that for wheat (another dryland crop) (Association pour le Developpement Rural). Values for 2006 fell in the same range.

While tobacco is important for the livelihoods of farmers from all over Lebanon, it is especially crucial for the Southerners. A survey dating from 1999 indicated that tobacco provides 25% to 85% and sometimes 100% of the total income of farmers (ADR).

Tobacco farming increased by 24% after the liberation of the South in 2000, especially in the cazas of Bint Jbeil, Marjeyoun and Sour. Tobacco cultivation has been vital in the livelihood rebuilding process that followed liberation, both for those who were in the resistance and for those who were in the pro-Israeli South Lebanon army. Moreover, a number of farmers from villages on the border used to work in the Israeli settlements and had to stop their activities after the liberation. Tobacco offered a post-war alternative and an opportunity to re-adapt to working in Lebanon.

In the South, tobacco is called “the crop of steadfastness”. Had it not been for tobacco and its subsidies, the South would have witnessed more intensive migration and emigration, and Israel would have easily reinvaded Lebanon in July 2006. Tobacco subsidy may have been a central factor in determining the outcome of the war.

For many years, a string of Hariri governments, and now the Sanioura government, have been threatening to remove the subsidies. They have accused the tobacco subsidies of draining the national economy.

What is the value of the tobacco subsidy? In 2005, there were 13,738 tobacco farmers in the South. The value of the subsidy paid by the Régie to Southern farmers was $15.5 million, equivalent to 40% of the value of the crop. This is nearly $1,000 per farmer family. Another $15 millions was spent on the 10,000 farmers of the North and the Bekaa. They are subsidized at 75%. The total value of the subsidy (price paid above market price) is close to $30 millions per year. This much is known to most people.

What is less known is that most of the Lebanese tobacco is exchanged for foreign cigarettes from international tobacco corporations. These cigarettes are then resold on the local market for a handsome profit (close to $5 millions in 2005). The main bartering partners are Philip Morris (43%) and British American Tobacco (23%).

So the tobacco subsidy help people from the poorest areas of Lebanon construct a livelihood and remain attached to the land, while providing the government and the Régie with a handsome profit. Why should they want to stop it?

Could it be because it is called the crop of steadfastness?

Putting out fire with gasoline

This is not exactly about food, farming and rural society, but I had to link to it: how the gasoline cartel operates in Lebanon, part 1 of 2. Absolutely fascinating. Please read it to see how warlords and merchants of Lebanon are linked.

Listen to this:

"The net income of the gasoline trade in Lebanon is close to $250 millions. It is politically distributed, among a small lobby second in power only to the banking sector lobby.

The handful of importers also own 80% of the retail trade, which allows them to multiply their benefits and control the whole supply chain."

In arabic

Isolate Syria-but after the potato harvest please

"Industrialists, farmers and economists on Thursday warned that Lebanon will suffer grave economic consequences if Syria shuts down the border crossings. "Most of Lebanon's agricultural exports go through Syria and if Damascus decided to close all crossing points than we will be deprived of more than $1 billion in export revenues a year."

Similar article in arabic in today's As Safir: Farmers are hurrying to pick the potatoes before Syria closes its last border still open in Masnaa. Farmers and farmer's unions foresee a disaster if this happens before the season is exported.

1. Please let those who keep complaining about agriculture being a useless sector that Lebanon exports $ 1 billion per year JUST THROUGH SYRIA.
2. Please let those who keep complaining about Syrian produce entering Lebanon remember that Syria imports more from Lebanon than vice-versa.
3. Please lets remember that we cannot want to wage a war against a state AND ask it to keep its orders open for our produce to keep flowing through it. I mean, we can, but it doesn't sound very serious.