Growing pains in the Bekaa Valley

Today’s Bekaa farmers feel alienated by a government that does not prioritize agriculture and are unable to make ends meet. They are demanding the government reconsider its decision to phase out sugar beet subsidies. Meanwhile the owners of the Lebanese Sugar Factory, who claim they stand to lose millions by the decision, also claim they have been let down by a heartless state. The government believes the system to be rotten and corrupt, one that does not help small farmers in the way it should and if it were up to the state, subsidies would be abolished today rather than in three years. EXECUTIVE takes an in-depth look at both sides of this increasingly divisive dispute, one that threatens to pierce the very fabric of Lebanon’s agricultural heart. The sour state of Lebanese sugar On October 13, 2005, the Lebanese Sugar Beet Cooperative, the national association of sugar beet growers,