Agricultural Crisis to Loom if Lebanese-Syrian Border Closed

The uprising in the neighboring Syria, which kicked off in March 2011, began to significantly have an impact on the Lebanese agricultural sector.

Head of the Farmer’s Association Antoine Hoayek urged on Monday the cabinet to lease two ferries to move trucks transporting goods by the sea to Jordan and Egypt, holding the concerned officials responsible for the damage that will inflict the agricultural sector if exports were halted.

He criticized the officials’ “negligence” towards the disaster that will hit the agricultural sector, which is a central aspect to the Lebanese economy, if the Lebanese-Syrian border was completely closed.

Hoayek noted that the only solution is to transport the trucks through ferries from Beirut to Egypt or the Jordanian port of Aqaba, at least twice a week, to sell Lebanese vegetables and fruits to Gulf countries and Iraq.

He called on the cabinet to swiftly act to prevent an agricultural crisis and to hold agreements with the Egyptian government to open the Suez Canal for the Lebanese ferries and with the Jordanian authorities to exempt these trucks from fees in order to ease their access to the markets.

On Sunday, hundreds of Lebanese trucks were halted at Jdeidet Yabous near the Masnaa crossing after tension escalated across the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The trucks were loaded with some 7,000 tons of vegetables and fruits.