The Olive and Olive Oil Committee of the General National Union of Cooperative Societies held an emergency meeting, which resulted in sending an official memorandum to the Minister of Agriculture, Nizar Hani, and the Director-General of the Ministry, warning of the disastrous repercussions of flooding local markets with imported, smuggled, and counterfeit oil. The memorandum called for permanently banning the import of olive oil, and ensuring that the military institution’s needs are exclusively sourced from local production, in addition to paying farmers’ outstanding dues since 2013.
The committee called for developing a strict and decisive security plan to combat smuggling operations and reduce the theft of crops and orchards, in addition to taking a decision to close the free zone in Tripoli. The demands also included prohibiting the use of colored vegetable oils in restaurants, and amending the standard specifications issued by the Ibsar Foundation and the “Linor” specifications, in a way that prevents the legalization of cases of commercial fraud.
The memorandum stressed the need to take urgent preventive measures to prevent the infiltration of the “Xylella fastidiosa” bacteria, which is deadly to olive trees, into the country. It called on the state to shoulder its responsibilities in compensating for the uprooting and burning of about 200,000 perennial olive trees and the damage of millions of plants as a result of Israeli attacks between 2023 and 2026, in addition to providing the necessary support to agricultural cooperatives to develop presses and encourage the shift towards organic agriculture.
