Shrinking areas of citrus orchards in the south due to upsurge in construction investments

In its feature last Saturday on the citrus cultivation in south Lebanon, As Safir daily said the orchards are being confined to three plains, Adloun, Damour and Mansouri. The main refrigerating storehouses, Safa and Zaatari in Sinik area, which used to export year round and employ a fair percentage of workforce, have closed down because of the high transportation costs that limited their ability to compete. The newspaper pointed out that the notable families in the business who own most of the southern coastal citrus plantations, are from Saida and Damour. However, the majority of them have chosen to sell their land, and those who emigrated and returned to their hometown opted to purchase and invest in real estate. For more insight on the issue, As Safir spoke to one farmer, Rida Nahle, who complained that his 30-dunum farm barely yields now $20 thousand a year, noting that he can sell it for not less than a $3 million. “The Lebanese market cannot accommodate more than 20-30% of the local production, and without exporting, the market is saturated with bananas and citrus fruits,” he grieved. (As Safir, October 24, 2015)