Inspiring libations

Of the specialized economic activities that the 10 members of the steering committee for the project on private sector employment creation and productivity – organized by Executive Magazine in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – agreed on when determining the five industries that would be the focus of the roundtable series and report, the activity of wine and spirits production as sub-sector of the food processing and agro-industrial sector, is perhaps the most consistent and at the same time a most ambivalent choice. The latter appears to apply in the cultural context that this activity is not accepted unequivocally as constituent of a desirable national economy of Lebanon but also in the sense that it relates to some products that are strongly established on domestic and export markets and some products, such as liquors made from domestically produced ingredients, that arrived on the market just