Farmers demand coordination with Syria for marketing their harvests

The National Gathering of Agricultural Committees in Lebanon yesterday held a meeting for various agricultural syndicates, unions and cooperatives in Nabatiyeh and the South at the Chamber of Commerce in Saida to demand cooperation with Syria to open the borders for Lebanese goods. The president of the Chamber in Saida and the South, Mohamad Saleh, warned during the meeting that the marketing of Lebanese agricultural produce is at stake. This, he explained, has been the case since the outbreak of the war in neighboring Syria which resulted in frequent closure of land crossings, the increase in transit fees and in the cost of transportation, aided with the irresponsible attitude on part of the authorities in Lebanon to resolve the issue. He pointed out that Lebanese farmers largely rely on exporting their agricultural goods through a single land crossing via Syria. Over the past years, he maintained, they have established good ties in this regard to secure the entry of their commodities to the GCC markets, as well as to Jordan, Iraq and Syria. Saleh finally called for sustaining these ties in order to rescue Lebanon’s relations with the Arab states and to galvanize the national productive sectors, mainly agriculture. (Al Diyar, July 29, 2020)