Nuts for nuts

This article is part of an Executive special report on Lebanese industry. Read more stories as they’re published here, or pick up October’s issue at newsstands in Lebanon. Lebanon’s leading nuts producer Al Rifai last July moved into a brand new $25 million facility near Byblos. “We used to have three separate production facilities in and around Beirut,” says Al Rifai’s commercial director Jean Nader. “Now, we are all under one roof in Halat.” The facility has a capacity of some 16,000 tons of nuts and kernels annually. Al Rifai ships in nuts from all over the world. Almonds, for example, are mainly imported from Spain and the United States. Pistachios mainly come from Iran, cashew nuts from Brazil and peanuts from China. “Lebanon only produces high-quality pine seeds,” says Nader. “It also produces almonds and walnuts, but not premium quality and not enough to support an industrial operation like