Conflict and Weather Extremes Dwindle Lebanese Harvest

Summary

Adverse weather con­di­tions and esca­lat­ing ten­sions along the south­ern bor­der with Israel have sig­nif­i­cantly impacted Lebanon’s olive oil pro­duc­tion, lead­ing to lower yields and destruc­tion of olive trees. Despite increased inter­na­tional demand for Lebanese olive oil, ris­ing prices due to a com­bi­na­tion of fac­tors, includ­ing the con­flict and eco­nomic cri­sis, are mak­ing it increas­ingly unaf­ford­able for local con­sumers, turn­ing what was once a sta­ple in Lebanese house­holds into a lux­ury item.

In November, the International Olive Council esti­mated that Lebanon would pro­duce 18,000 tons of olive oil in the cur­rent crop year, in line with the five-year aver­age.

However, adverse weather con­di­tions exac­er­bated by cli­mate change led many local pro­duc­ers to believe the final fig­ure would be con­sid­er­ably lower.

According to Murr Television, a local media out­let, yields have dropped from 120 liters per square meter to less than 20 liters in cer­tain regions.

The esca­la­tion of ten­sions along the south­ern bor­der with Israel com­pounded the chal­lenges faced by olive oil pro­duc­ers.

Since the October 7^th attack by Hamas, a polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary orga­ni­za­tion backed by Iran that gov­erns Gaza, on Israel, there have been near-daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli Defence Force and Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian polit­i­cal party and mili­tia. The con­flict has severely dis­rupted the olive har­vest.

According to fig­ures from the Ministry of Agriculture, at least 386 fires caused by Israeli bomb­ings destroyed 50,000 olive trees.

Save the Children, a char­ity, sim­i­larly esti­mates that about 47,000 olive trees have been destroyed in the con­flict. The group also believes 86,000 peo­ple have been dis­placed from south­ern Lebanon, leav­ing olive trees unhar­vested.

Rose Bechara Perini, the founder of Darmmess, was among those affected. She started her har­vest on September 24^th in Deir Mimas, a vil­lage two kilo­me­ters from the bor­der.

“We already knew that we were going to have a small quan­tity of olive due to a strong wind hit­ting hard dur­ing spring, mak­ing flow­ers fall,” she said. ​“But that was not all: There have been sev­eral days of rain at the end of September, which never hap­pens.”

“And then, there was the bomb­ing, from very far at the begin­ning, and then, it got closer. I couldn’t risk the life of every­one,” recalled Bechara, who works with around 15 farm­ers in Deir Mimas.

She halted her har­vest on October 9^th amid the esca­lat­ing vio­lence.

The Lebanese pro­ducer thanked her farm­ers, col­lected every­thing she could, fil­tered and bot­tled it, and headed back to Beirut.

“We pro­duced only 20 per­cent of what we were expect­ing,” Bechara said. ​“We were not able to serve the 14 coun­tries we usu­ally export to. I think I’ve lost nearly 10,000 liters of olive oil.”

Despite efforts to save what they could, pro­duc­ers faced sig­nif­i­cant losses. Tony Maroun, another olive oil pro­ducer based in Jounieh, north of Beirut, expe­ri­enced a sim­i­lar decline in pro­duc­tion.

“Unfortunately, we could reach only 50 to 60 per­cent of our usual pro­duc­tion this year,” he said. ​“The qual­ity of the oil was good, but the quan­tity was much lower due to the sea­son, the har­vest and the weather, but also because many farm­ers couldn’t har­vest their fields.”

The pro­ducer runs a 60-year-old com­pany work­ing with nearly 70 farm­ers around Lebanon, a quar­ter of them are based in the south of Lebanon.

Despite these chal­lenges, the demand for Lebanese olive oil has increased inter­na­tion­ally. Maroun noted a two per­cent increase in exports this year, under­scor­ing the grow­ing global inter­est in Lebanese olive oil.

However, the rise in demand has con­tributed to higher prices, mak­ing it increas­ingly unaf­ford­able for local con­sumers, par­tic­u­larly amid Lebanon’s ongo­ing eco­nomic cri­sis.

“Will the local con­sumer still be able to buy good Lebanese olive oil at an afford­able price? It’s becom­ing harder and harder,” Maroun said.

According to pro­duc­ers, prices had already risen before the war due to the scarcity of olives and the cost of energy.

“The price per kilo­gram of olives on the tree went from $0.60 (€0.56) to a lit­tle over $1 (€0.93),” Bechara said.

While olive oil remains a sta­ple in Lebanese cui­sine, its acces­si­bil­ity has dimin­ished, with prices soar­ing to $6 or $7 for a 500-mil­li­liter bot­tle. For many, olive oil is fast becom­ing a lux­ury item – a stark con­trast to its pre­vi­ous ubiq­uity in Lebanese house­holds.

• Save the Children