The cruel face of economic warfare

In early July 2006, Liban Lait, Lebanon’s largest dairy farm, was witnessing an unprecedented growth spurt. “At the beginning of July, the market was booming; we had a peak in sales that wasn’t normal. There was a 40% increase – we were expecting it to be stable at that level,” says the factory’s Sales and Marketing Manager Marc Waked. “We were the only producers of long-life milk, fruit-flavored yogurt, desserts in cups. We had a wide range of full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk. We basically controlled the market,” recalls Waked, 39. At that time, the factory was producing more than 80 products, ranging from fresh milk to cheeses, yogurts and desserts, and had plans for expansion and new product lines. It supplied the domestic Lebanese market and the South Lebanon-based United Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and exported throughout the region. “It was a continuous expansion for us, we wanted