Lebanese Ag Minister Praises Producers’ Success on World Stage

Part of our con­tin­u­ing spe­cial cov­er­age of the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Lebanon’s out­go­ing min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture has con­grat­u­lated olive oil pro­duc­ers for their suc­cess at the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, accord­ing to media reports.

Abbas Hajj Hassan cel­e­brated the suc­cess of Darmmess, which earned a Gold Award for its medium-inten­sity Souri mono­va­ri­etal.

“Olive oil is a promis­ing prod­uct with which Lebanon can com­pete with most export­ing coun­tries despite the many crises it is going through,” he said.

While win­ners will con­tinue to be announced through April, Lebanese pro­duc­ers have already earned two Gold Awards from six entries at the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion.

MNL Farms, which exports all of its pro­duc­tion to the United States, won the other Gold Award.

The awards come amid a back­drop of con­tin­ued eco­nomic uncer­tainty, loom­ing chal­lenges from cli­mate change, but also a robust 2022 har­vest.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research group, Lebanon’s con­tin­ued eco­nomic uncer­tainty is fueled by polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity, which is expected to con­tinue in the near term.

“Even as reforms and debt restruc­tur­ing nego­ti­a­tions start and mul­ti­lat­eral fund­ing begins to flow, the recov­ery will be slow and par­tial from 2023 to 2027, reflect­ing the depth of the ongo­ing eco­nomic, cur­rency, finan­cial and debt crises, as well as the impact of hyper­in­fla­tion and polit­i­cal insta­bil­ity on domes­tic demand,” the group said.

Lebanon’s crises, which have been unfold­ing since 2019, have forced many pro­duc­ers to focus on exports as domes­tic demand has evap­o­rated and the need to bring in hard cur­ren­cies, such as U.S. dol­lars and Euros, to pay for pro­duc­tion expenses became more acute.

Hassan and pro­duc­ers hope that win­ning awards at inter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tions helps pro­mote Lebanese extra vir­gin olive oils and drive sales.

“[Winning the award] means a lot to all of us and helps sell our oil in the U.S. mar­ket,” Altirs owner Mike Altirs con­firmed. ​“It is a reward for the hard work and improve­ments we strive to do every sea­son.”

With an annual aver­age pro­duc­tion of 60,000 liters, Altirs added that Lebanon’s increas­ingly hot and arid cli­mate is also a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge for pro­duc­ers and makes win­ning awards all the more grat­i­fy­ing.

Meanwhile, Rose Bechara Perini, founder of Darmmess, believes these awards demon­strate the resilience of the coun­try’s olive farm­ers to the over­whelm­ing dif­fi­cul­ties that they face.

Shortages of qual­i­fied labor­ers, ris­ing energy costs and fre­quent black­outs are among the obsta­cles she cited.

“This Gold Award is the cul­mi­na­tion of years of hard work,” Bechara said. ​“It is undoubt­edly a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for us, our farm­ers, our vil­lage Deir Mimas and Lebanon.”

• Trilogue News
• Economist Intelligence Unit