The Mount Lebanon Governorate Committee held an expanded meeting within the activities of the “National Meeting of Agricultural Bodies” in Lebanon, in the presence of the meeting’s chairman, Jihad Bellouk, the head of the fishermen’s cooperative in the port of Ouzai, Talaat Harb, and the head of the Fishermen’s Syndicate on the southern Matn coast, Fadi Al-Husseini, in addition to the members: Afif Abi Shedid, Younis Barakat, Maroun Al-Qazzi, Bilal Barakat, Omar Al-Makkawi, and the secretary, Engineer Muhammad Al-Husseini.
The meeting began by reviewing the results of previous meetings with the Ministries of Health, Economy, Industry, and Agriculture, with a focus on food safety and anti-adulteration files, and emphasizing the necessity of cooperation between relevant government agencies to protect the health of citizens and ensure the quality of products on the market.
After that, the attendees discussed preparing an action plan to form an active follow-up committee in Mount Lebanon Governorate, concerned with food and agricultural affairs, and based on the experiences of other governorates that held meetings with the heads of the relevant ministerial departments, with the aim of benefiting from mutual experiences and unifying methods of supervisory and regulatory work.
The meeting also addressed the issue of honey fraud, especially the illegal import of foreign honey, and the resulting health damage to the consumer, in addition to the economic losses incurred by local beekeepers due to the deterioration in prices and its negative impact on national production.
The committee members praised “the importance of uniting the efforts of farmers from different regions and affiliations under one banner, whose title is serving the Lebanese farmer and defending national production in the face of fraud and neglect.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, a set of practical measures were agreed upon, the most important of which is the formation of a specialized committee in the Mount Lebanon Governorate concerned with consumer protection and fraud prevention, especially in the dairy and cheese sectors, and working to coordinate with the interests of the Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Economy and Industry in the governorate, by setting official dates to activate the supervisory role, starting with the Ministry of Economy in the first stage.
This meeting confirms the commitment of the Mount Lebanon Governorate Committee to move forward with organized and practical steps to address food and agricultural issues, and to enhance cooperation with official authorities, in a way that serves consumer health and protects the local producer and farmer.
