Q&A with Nadine Khoury, COO of Robinson Agri, on how COVID-19 has impacted agriculture

Lebanon’s ongoing economic crisis has highlighted the importance of well-functioning productive sectors—namely agriculture and industry—to a country’s GDP and economic well-being. This was further emphasized with the COVID-19 global pandemic significantly slowing down trade, disrupting food supply chains, and forcing each country to think of its own supply needs first. Executive spoke with Nadine Khoury, chief operating officer of Jbeil-headquartered Robinson Agri, a greenhouse producer and provider of agricultural and irrigation products and services with customized turnkey projects, to learn about how COVID-19 is impacting agriculture in Lebanon and what potential opportunities can be gleaned from this challenging time. How has COVID-19 impacted Lebanon’s farmers and the agriculture sector in general? In Lebanon, the agriculture sector was already suffering from the severe economic crisis and now their challenges have been compounded with this crisis.  In his March 22 statement, the minister of interior placed the agriculture sector on the list