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The Olive and Olive Oil Committee of the National Union of Cooperative Associations in Lebanon held an emergency meeting and addressed an official memorandum to the Minister of Agriculture, Nizar Hani, and to the Director General, warning of the serious repercussions of flooding the Lebanese market with imported, smuggled, and counterfeit olive oil.
The committee demanded a comprehensive ban on olive oil imports, and called on military and security institutions, primarily the Lebanese Army, to source their requirements exclusively from domestic production. It also insisted on the settlement of state dues owed to farmers, which have remained outstanding since 2013.
The memorandum called for the implementation of a strict security plan to combat oil smuggling operations and to protect olive groves from theft. It further demanded the closure of the free zone in Tripoli, citing its role in channeling smuggled products into the domestic market. The committee also urged a ban on the use of colored vegetable oils in restaurants, and amendments to the standards adopted by «Libnor» to prevent the legitimization of fraudulent practices.
On the sanitary and preventive front, the committee stressed the need for firm measures to prevent the entry of «Xylella fastidiosa», the deadly olive tree bacterium, into Lebanese territory. It also called on the Lebanese state to compensate farmers for the destruction caused by the Israeli occupation, which has uprooted and burned approximately 200,000 mature olive trees and caused the loss of millions of saplings between 2023 and 2026.
The memorandum concluded by underscoring the importance of supporting cooperatives to modernize olive mills and encouraging farmers to transition to organic farming practices, in order to ensure the sector's sustainability and strengthen its competitiveness.
Source: Sefir Al-Shamal