Arab Re

Sourcing of regional reinsurance is an issue of growing importance to primary insurance providers across the region, be they established companies or newcomers. For reinsurance company Arab Re, this translates directly into a substantial increase in perceived business opportunities. “I can confirm that our board has taken the decision to double our capital. This issue is now on the front burner,” deputy general manager of Arab Re and current ranking executive, Tayseer Treky, tells EXECUTIVE. He expects the capital increase to be completed before the end of the year.

Established in 1972 upon direct recommendation by the General Arab Insurance Federation, Arab Re’s capital had last been increased in 1998, from $12.3 million to the current $25 million. From its inception, the firm’s mission was directed specifically at assisting insurers in markets across the region and run Arab reinsurance pools. With greater integration of Arab markets on the horizon, the firm feels that it is time to assume a bigger role. “We are the Pan-Arab reinsurance company par excellence,” Treky claims. “We are an ambitious company but we are also aware of the limitations of our size and from market conditions. Our policy has always been gradualist.”

In terms of immediate expectations, the firm’s outlook actually projects rather steep growth. After gross premium income rose from $17.9 million in 2002 to $20.7 million in 2003, Arab Re’s anticipation for 2004 is a near 50% increase in premiums, to $30 million. For 2005, the company expects a further increase to $35 million.

Arab Re’s premium income originates to 92% from the region, with the remainder generated in Asia and Africa. Lebanon is the number one market for the Beirut-based firm, accounting for 16% of premium income, followed by Egypt (13%), Libya (12%) and the United Arab Emirates (10.5%). “The degree of our presence in different Arab insurance markets is determined by our marketing orientation and also by the existence of our shareholders in different markets,” says Treky, “We tend to be stronger where we have shareholders.” The company’s shareholder base includes 55 entities from 16 countries, mainly insurance and reinsurance companies but also some public and private sector banks. The largest equity stake by a single shareholder does not exceed 12%. Following a three-year period where the company saw its premium income drop annually between 1997 and 2000, Arab Re benefited from the changed reinsurance world, post the September 11 terror attacks. Some European and international reinsurers lost parts or all of their enthusiasm for doing business in Arab countries. And like many in the hardening global market, insurers from across the region encountered harsher conditions and stricter limits from their international reinsurance partners. While acknowledging that September 11 triggered a wave of changes in the relations between regional insurers and international reinsurance firms, Treky sees the changes as rooted in factors that came into play considerably before the fateful day. “Arab Re anticipated well ahead of 9/11 that smaller Arab companies would one day face difficulties with their reinsurers, due to economies of scale. The concentration and mergers in the global insurance industry in the 1990s made the average sized Arab company probably less attractive,” he says. “We have long been telling our clients not to put all their eggs into the basket of international reinsurers, because a day would come when the need for regional reinsurance would be greater.”

With WTO membership impending for an increasing number of Arab countries and liberalization of – thus far – closed insurance markets looming, the managers in Arab Re’s executive offices in downtown Beirut see not challenges but substantial new opportunities in the opening of more Arab markets to more players. In Libya, for example, where two new insurance companies are under formation, the persons driving the process of establishing these firms are, in Treky’s words, “old good friends of Arab Re.” Because of its low insurance density and penetration, Syria would be a promising market even if the insurance regime were to prevail as it is, Treky says. “If, however, the Syrian insurance market opens up and more opportunities come into the picture, the pace will be much faster and growth will be greater.” Also in Iraq, once the country returns to normalcy and security, the insurance market is, in his opinion, bound to grow very quickly and perhaps recover its grandeur as the Arab world’s biggest and best developed one. Arab Re has major shareholders in these two countries, which leads the manager to expect that in the hoped for business growth there, the company “will enjoy the support of many friends we have.” As good connections, vital as the are, cannot substitute crucial skills, Arab Re is focusing in practical preparations for its future on developing their human resources in a two-pronged approach of training their existing employees and seeking to hire new additional staff with significant experience in reinsurance from within the region.

The future of Arab insurance markets may at last favor the fulfilling of the vision that guided the creation of Arab Re over three decades back but that was blocked for the longest time by regional strife. Today, Arab Re believes that after the hard school of corporate survival under the worst circumstances imaginable, future business obstacles could not cause more than a light hiccup for this reinsurance company.

Medgulf

He who wants to play in the big leagues has to live by big-league rules and must be willing to compete on every ground. The Mediterranean & Gulf Insurance and Reinsurance Company – known in the market as Medgulf – abides by these terms. It employs the business logic that permanent growth is an absolute obligation for a company that aspires to reach market leadership and stay in that coveted position.

“In life and business, you never want to stop, because if you do, you don’t expand anymore,” says Michel Abou Jamra, Medgulf’s executive vice president. “And if you don’t expand, somebody else will.” The company’s ascendance over the past decade and their long-term plans match this disposition. Although displaying a single corporate identity, Medgulf actually is a group comprising two separate companies, an anonymous shareholding company (sal) in Lebanon and an offshore exempt company (ec) in Bahrain, which was established in 1995 for conducting business in Saudi Arabia. Both companies achieved rapid growth and are today holding claims to being the largest private sector insurance operator working in Saudi Arabia and the leading non-life insurer in Lebanon. After receiving license approval by the Bahraini central bank, Medgulf earlier this year entered Bahrain directly as their third market. And having every intent to acquire the stature of true regional insurer, Medgulf executive management confesses as their strategic aim to establish a presence in the majority of Arab countries.

However, the company does not rush in implementation of the far-reaching ambitions by seeking a fast geographical rollout. “It is not important to pretend being a regional player but it is important to do things needed to become effective as regional player,” Abou Jamra says.

“We are looking to expand quite soon into the UAE and have further expansion projects. But we do it in phases, digesting every move before making the next one,” elaborates Faysal Malak, the company’s executive in charge of bancassurance and communications. According to the company’s annual report, Kuwait and Oman are further targets for expansion in the near to mid term. Medgulf can certainly be expected to have the staying power for regional deployment, thanks to being backed by two of the strongest financial private sector groups in the region, Prince Walid Bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding and the Saudi Oger/Groupe Méditerranée of Lebanese tycoon Rafik Hariri. Medgulf chairman Lutfi Zein is the third main shareholder. The group’s financial acumen is reflected in multiple capital increases that the shareholders injected into the two companies over the past three years, bringing capital in Lebanon from $8.5 million in 2000 to over $13 million in 2002, and raising it from $15 million in 2001 to $ 33.3 million in 2003 for the Saudi arm.

Results for 2003 were good in both markets, Abou Jamra tells EXECUTIVE. Premium income for the group reached around $135 million, up from $120 million in the previous year. Shareholder equity climbed to $57 million. Through subsidiary company Addison-Bradley, Medgulf is also active in Jordan, the UAE and UK.

Although the operation in Saudi Arabia achieved the higher premium income between the two group companies, the number of individual policies written in Lebanon was six to seven times larger, according to Abou Jamra. “The market structures are not the same. In Saudi Arabia, we have much more corporate business and fewer private clients. Driving license insurance is the single main retail product with premium turnover there,” says Malak. “However, after new regulations come into force in Saudi Arabia and the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, the situation might change and offer better prospects for individual sales.” Economic conditions in the Gulf countries are definitely influencing residents and nationals to view insurance with greater interest, agrees Abou Jamra. “In earlier years, employers in GCC countries provided ample packages to their expatriate workforce but under a more competitive labor market today, nationals and foreign employees alike seek out insurance companies for the benefits they offer,” he says.

The increasing adaptation of Gulf economies to international business and banking practices – such as requiring insurance as precondition for issuing a letter of credit – also help in widening the reach of insurance in the region, and the emergence of regional enterprises with employees in numerous Arab countries is creating new demand for services of insurers that are present across markets, say the two executives. Seeing this new Arab insurance environment taking shape, the Medgulf Insurance Group is enforced in their perspective that continued growth into a major international player is the way to secure their ambitions for Arab market leadership. The firm’s management culture is geared toward accommodating this. “We are working in a team with a diversified cultural background of people living in different Arab countries. All our management and middle management are ready to move to any market, and task forces can be formed wherever needed,” says Abou Jamra, adding that in the creation of this unified culture, the Medgulf main base in Lebanon plays a crucial role.

Arabia

Their name is tradition in the Middle Eastern insurance business. Commemorating their 60th anniversary this year, Arabia Insurance has sold policies in Arab countries already before some of them had gained their independence. The firm’s fortunes since its establishment in mandate-era Jerusalem in 1944 read as a corporate diary of exposure to changing political conditions and ideological risks, and of sustaining business throughout. With operations in seven markets – Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and home base Lebanon – Arabia Insurance remains active in a larger number of Arab countries than most competitors. The company’s strategic growth focus for the foreseeable future, however, is on two markets where Arabia is active today and two others to which the firm wants to return after a long enforced absence. “We are shooting for market share in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, and ultimately in Syria and Iraq,” the general manager of Arabia Insurance, Fady Shammas, tells EXECUTIVE. With the news of the release of Saudi Arabia’s insurance law just out, Shammas leaves no doubt that the kingdom is the most titillating market for the company at this point. “It tops the list in terms of our involvement in the region. We will consolidate and create a joint company in Saudi Arabia,” he says. “If medical and some other insurance covers are made compulsory, market potential could go from $1 billion in annual premiums to $5 billion within the next few years.” Arabia’s plan is to form a company involving several partners, probably including other insurance operators and a major bank. If negotiations among the prospective partners work out, the firm would enter the Saudi market as an insurance and reinsurance firm, with a mandatory minimum capital of $53.33 million. The business vision would entail competing for all public tenders – especially the energy and airline ones – and, for acceleration of retail business, engage in bancassurance as a distribution channel from day one of operations. Arabia’s confidence of being able to rise high in the kingdom’s insurance market is based, in good part, on the company’s knowledge of the Saudi market. By 2003, it had generated 19% of their business in the kingdom, although it had to operate their seven branches under the same hand knit setup as other private sector insurers, necessitated by the impossibility to register and run a regular insurance company in Saudi Arabia until the passing of the country’s new insurance law.

For their corporate structure, this meant the firm established an offshore Bahraini company as operator of the Saudi business called, Arabia Insurance International, while Beirut headquartered Arabia Insurance Company coordinated activities in the firm’s five other GCC markets, including Bahrain, and Lebanon. Consolidated unaudited figures for the two entities in the Arabia Insurance group for 2003 showed total assets of 260 billion LL, continuing a steady increase since a new management team took the reigns in 1999. Capital is an unchanged LL51 billion, and total equity without provisions reached $75 million. From non-life business alone, the company expects to realize a net profit of $8 million for 2003, an increase of 40% over 2002. The life division, in which Arabia launched a new concept in 2002 with aggressive ambitions for growth across its geographical markets, also realized good results for 2003 and improved its share in Arabia’s total gross premiums from 6% to 8%. As one of the first companies to participate in interactive ratings with regional ratings agency, i.e. Muhanna, Arabia was rated A for 2001, and the rating was confirmed for 2002. The largest shareholder in Arabia Insurance is leading regional banking group, Arab Bank. In line with a policy to close branches that have not been profitable for seven consecutive years and show no sign of better prospects, Arabia last year shut down one branch in the UAE and one in Saudi Arabia, out of its total network of over 30 branches and agencies. Reconfirming the company’s strategic commitment to Lebanon through opening two new branches, Arabia is raising the count to five active branches nationwide this year, plus five life agencies and one general agency. Syria and Iraq are the markets where Arabia has intense long-term ambitions in a combination of historic affinity, sense of mission, and business expectations. “We are very attached to these countries,” Shammas says, “and it is in our mission statement to export insurance knowledge to these markets.” The proper timing to emerge on the Iraqi market is still difficult to determine for now, but as to Syria, Arabia already conducted a proprietary feasibility study, which the company holds under close wraps. As soon as the legal path is cleared, the insurer intends to move full speed ahead, Shammas confirms. “Hopefully, we will be the first private sector insurance company to newly incorporate in Syria.”

Commercial

There are myths to be dispelled also when it comes to working in several Arab markets, and the most notable of these myths may well be the assumption that cross border activities are only for big companies. For Commercial Insurance, a seasoned Lebanese operator with over four decades of accumulated expertise, the decisive factors for regional activities by an insurer are having the requisite skills and finding the right partners. “There is no minimum size needed for being able to venture into new markets,” says Max Zaccar, the chairman of Commercial. “To be a good insurer, you first need a good team, which we are proven to have and are improving upon. Then you need the professional approach, for which we have been recognized for the last 42 years by our clients, by our market, and by our reinsurers.”

For not counting among the country’s market-dominant top ten insurers, Commercial – which achieved an income of just under $6 million in gross premiums in 2002 – has a track record of versatility and wide competency. Medical and motor covers provided the primary sources of income, but the firm is also regarded as specialist in marine insurance and has a small portfolio in term life policies. Strong client orientation motivated the insurer to be a by local industry standards very early implementer of a round-the-clock customer help line and develop group insurance solutions offering schools easy term life covers that safeguard the education of children in case of parental death. Despite losing a prominent corporate account in 2003, Commercial achieved a 25% increase in profits. “To us, this is confirmation of the way we do our business. It allows us to think that we can invest,” says Zaccar. Market conditions permitting, management harbors strong expectations to realize much growth in Lebanon over the coming years – but the company does not wait for “better days” to arrive before making new moves. Management took on 10 new trainees, equivalent to a quarter of their workforce; it partnered with a university, NDU, in a research and instruction project; and it offered staff members options of continued training at the company’s expense. These measures create a noticeable cost burden, which Zaccar accepts as a price for better productivity. “We are in a period of investing and saying to the market and our people that we are committed to the future,” he says. “Since the end of 2003, the entire company is changing attitudes. We are becoming more aggressive, more aware and more present.” It seems natural that a company engaged in an internal renewal cycle would not treat geographic expansion into new countries as a main concern. But Commercial has indeed made contacts with Iraq, from where it is awaiting feedback, and also explored possibilities in an African country. While Gulf and North African insurance markets are in his view heavily covered, Zaccar would see opportunities in these countries as well as in Libya and Syria. The trigger to make Commercial pursue new opportunities abroad would be interest from potential partners in a target country or from an international insurer seeking after a Lebanese partner for establishing a platform to enter this and regional markets. It would be an attractive proposition to Zaccar. “If partners from an Arab country would seek our professional partnership, we would be most interested, and also if we happen to be approached by an international player” he says and would not be deterred by questions over majority or minority shareholding. “We could be the leaven in any partnership. We are professional insurers. If we are thrown into a market, whatever the shareholding, we can produce results.”

The people of Commercial Insurance appear to believe in themselves, and accept challenges. They’d better. After all, the company just designed a new motto to express their corporate identity: ‘live boldly.’

Lebanon’s agricultural sector has seen better days. Between 1979 and 1981, the labor force of the agricultural sector accounted for 14% of the total labor force, based on the figures of the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). This dwindled to 3% by 2001. In 1961, Lebanon’s Gross National Agricultural Production stood at LL300 million ($900 million, $1= three pounds), according to statistics compiled by the Lebanese Center for Agricultural Research and Studies. Four decades later, this figure has hardly budged, settling in 2002 at LL1.5 trillion ($1 billion).

“Up until, 1918, Lebanon used to provide the French city of Lyon, with half of its silk threads,” said Riad Saade, the center’s director. “In 1936, the French region of Roquefort used to import half of the raw cheese processed in the caves (bearing its name) from Lebanon.”

The decline in Lebanon’s agricultural output took place during the civil war, but it has been exacerbated in peacetime. The loss of agricultural land to the haphazard construction boom of the 1990’s, competition in the key export markets in the Arab World and the government’s focus on investments put the agricultural sector on the back burner. There have been half-hearted attempts, by successive governments to rehabilitate the sector but the only visible evidence of government backing are random subsides dished out at various times to farmers.

In 2001, the farmers raised an outcry and some replanted illicit crops to protest government inaction toward their plight, which left them trampling surplus produce on the streets. The government responded by allocating LL50 billion ($33 million) for an export subsidy program dubbed Export Plus, which gave farmers cash for exporting quality goods to markets around the world.

In 2004, the government and parliament is scrambling again to save the agricultural sector by extending new subsidies to apples and partially re-instating subsidies to sugar beet farmers to appease would-be voters in a decisive election year.

“Unfortunately, successive Lebanese governments have looked at the agriculture sector from a social rather than a socio-economic point of view,” said Raphael Debbane, head of the agricultural committee of the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Lebanon. “Tobacco subsidies are pure social help whereby the government buys the crops and throws it away because it cannot sell them on the world market on account of their poor quality. Now they have renewed sugar subsidies in a non-professional way and the main reason for that is socio-political.”

Against this government backing to the agriculture sector, the private sector is finding it harder to compete in the local and international markets, where subsidies are given to farmers on a different basis. “If the subsidies are stopped in developing countries, farmers will suffer but they will survive,” said Imad Bsat, owner of B-fresh agricultural company. “If Export Plus ends, nobody will enforce standards and the sector will collapse.”

IDAL helps farmers sell their quality goods, but it does not tell them what type of crops to plant or what kind of crops are wanted by consumers in world markets. “Technically, Export Plus is a success but economically it is a big failure,” said Saade. “The problem is not money. Export Plus is only one ring in a chain. Other rings are needed.”

The other rings of the chain start with orienting farmers on what to plant according to market demands and what types of products to export. The next chain consists of extending technology to farmers to improve their crops and introduce new varieties through government backed research and financial credit. The final chain is marketing, which is what IDAL handles now, said Saade.

“Under Export Plus, farmers exported some 350,000 tons in 2003, which is equivalent to the amount of citrus Lebanon used to export in the 1970’s and 1980’s,” said Bsat. His family used to own Safa Citrus, one of the country’s largest fruit exporters that shut down in the 1990’s. “The government is spending millions of dollars on subsidizing crops when it should be using this money to fund research and help farmers develop new varieties,” said Bsat.

Agricultural engineers say Lebanon’s farmers are unable to adapt to the new agricultural modes, which rely extensively on technology and marketing. “It is a vicious cycle,” said Debbane. “Lebanese farmers have to get know-how and expertise from outside, which means importing technology at a cost. But if you don’t have money, consequently you have no money to invest in new varieties.”
 

The odds are stacked against the farmers’ development. Their production costs are significantly higher than their neighboring countries. They once had a monopoly over the Arab markets, but their rising costs and competition from cheaper produce have forced them to lose their edge in their prime markets. Neighboring Arab countries are swamping the Lebanese market with cheap produce while closing their doors to Lebanese produce, which have been hurt by badly negotiated agricultural agreements. Farmers often cite the agreements with Syria, Jordan and Egypt as disastrous and some are even calling for the suspension of Lebanon’s membership to the Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement, which is due to enter into force in 2005.

“All hell is going to break loose once GAFTA is implemented,” said Bsat, who develops his own varieties of fruits and sells them to supermarkets. “We are already facing stiff competition from their produce now and it will only become harder to sell our produce once the markets open further under GAFTA and the World Trade Organization.”

Waddah Fakhri, head of the Southern Farmers’ Association, wants the government to suspend Lebanon’s membership in GAFTA until farmers are ready to compete with goods from the Arab World. “The government has negotiated trade agreements without consulting farmers, who bear higher production costs than neighboring countries and lack the standards needed to export,” said Waddah.

One sector that is set to suffer from the government’s negotiating blunders is the flower industry. Under Lebanon’s Association Agreement with the European Union, tariffs on flowers were fixed at 30% and are set to go down further once Lebanon’s five-year grace period for lowering tariffs on European imports is over. The whole problem started when the government in 2000 slashed tariffs on flowers from 105% to 30% while it was negotiating with the EU. Following lobbying by Lebanon’s flower growers, the government agreed to raise it again to 70%, but it was too late; the Europeans had agreed on 30% and were sticking to it.

“Our sector suffers from government apathy and inconsistent policies toward the agriculture sector,” said Rania Younes, the owner of several nurseries in Lebanon. “Lebanon has human resources and the know-how to compete. We do not need mass agricultural areas to export. We can plant specialized products from small pieces of land.”

Besides the European Agreement, Lebanon’s flower sector is already suffering from a special agreement with Saudi Arabia, which is exporting flowers to Lebanon at minimal tariffs, she added. With only a few good trade agreements, Lebanese farmers require marketing cash to venture into new markets. Outside Export Plus, there is hardly any cash for marketing. “With a 0.4% budget out of the total government budget there is not much we can do,” said Louis Lahoud, director general at the agricultural ministry. “But we are working on a development plan for the agricultural sector to which the government has allocated LL5 billion ($3.3 million).”

Agriculturists agree that the government should start to control the sector by regulating standards and resolving the pricing anarchy in the domestic market that drove agriculturalists to seek price stability of supermarkets, despite stiff competition. “If we are able to regulate standards and prices in the domestic market, it would be much easier to do the same for our exports,” said Bsat.

Agriculturalists also want the ministry of agriculture to direct farmers to plant crops that could be used by the industrial sector. “A potentially successful road for developing the Lebanese agriculture sector is agro-industry,” said Debbane. “The government can develop Export Plus into a scheme inclusive of the agro-industry and a scheme for renewing orchards to introduce new varieties.”

According to Debbane, donors, who have pooled millions of dollars into agricultural projects that were doomed for failure due to political intervention or government inaction, need to divert the funds to the private sector. “Donors helping Lebanon develop its agriculture sector should pass this money to the private sector because the institutions of the Lebanese government have proved to be inefficient.”

THE ISRAELI EXAMPLE

Farmers and agricultural engineers point to the example of Israel, a country whose agricultural space and climate is similar but less diverse than Lebanon, but whose export potential has been propelled by staunch government backing. Similar to Lebanon, Israel’s agricultural land was being eaten away by a construction boom, declining number of farmers and a strain on its limited water resources, which had to be used to irrigate extensive desert land that Lebanon does not have. That did not stop the Israeli government from forging ahead in the 1990’s with an aggressive marketing campaign and research.

“When Israeli farmers wanted to introduce a new variety of grapes into England, the government spent $1 to $2 million on the marketing campaign,” said agricultural engineer Imad Bsat. Israel in the 1960’s was primarily known for the famous Jaffa oranges, but in the 1990’s its agricultural landscape changed. Instead of planting just citrus products, the Israeli government heavily invested into research, prodding its traditional farmers in the kibbutzes to adopt new agricultural products.

Currently, Israel’s exports around $200 million a year in flowers – a third of its fresh agricultural exports – an amount equivalent to Lebanon’s annual agro-industrial exports. “Each day an El Al plane leaves Tel Aviv and lands in Holland, the world’s flower market, carrying fresh flowers,” said economist Riad Saade. “Flowers are an example of a high-value added industry that can be easily developed in Lebanon.”

Lebanon’s flower exports in 2003 were around $300,000, based on customs figures. According to the Israeli government, it provides nearly 40% of Europe’s off-season fruit and vegetable market, and ranks second only to Holland in European flower sales. Israel’s fresh and processed agricultural exports stood at $1 billion in 2002. Nearly 60% of its exports were fresh produce, mainly headed to Europe, based on the figures of the Israeli ministry of agriculture. Israel does not only export agricultural produce, its also exports around $1 billion in agricultural technology each year.

Abi Habib: `Our loans are convenient, because they are cheap… and long term`

In making agriculture more sustainable in recent years, the availability of financing options has seen some important improvements. The number of loans to the agro sector has mushroomed in the last two years, especially through loans granted under the Kafalat loan guarantee program.

Lebanese farmers and small agricultural enterprises commonly encountered problems in accessing loans at commercial banks, whose focus of business would rarely include agriculture and whose branch networks were concentrated away from rural areas. Agriculturalists on their part were often reluctant to seek bank loans, which carried high interest charges and requirements to post land as collateral, a stipulation which the small land owners and family farmers viewed as running contrary to their traditions.

This placed agriculturalists in a situation where sponsored programs were most appropriate to their needs. One type of such finance vehicle is micro finance, which fundamentally aims at enabling poor people to realize their potential for economic productivity. The tool to achieve this is provision of micro credits with strict repayment discipline, modeled after a development concept popularized over the last two decades through the collateral-free lending activities of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Over 20 foreign and domestic NGOs have involved themselves since the mid 1990s in managing the provision of such loans to Lebanese individuals and small enterprises, in many instances with an emphasis on serving specific communities or geographic regions.

An UNDP country survey from 1997 found that the concept encountered a notable amount of skepticism at that time, but a 2002 paper for a World Bank development debate drew a more promising picture on the potential of micro finance for Lebanon. Presently, accumulated NGO-driven micro lending activities with a ceiling of $5,000 per loan are estimated to stand at a level of around $30 million. As charities, micro finance NGOs are dependent on donor contributions. Except for micro lending initiatives within general lending by commercial banks, the activity is yet to be regulated, making it difficult to analyze the overall scope, distribution and performance. “Some of the NGOs have become more productive, others less,” said economist Joey Ghaleb, who co-authored the 2002 paper.

Experts said that new dynamics would enter this realm and boost the micro finance volume when the central bank implements a planned framework, under which banks will be allowed to utilize a portion of their statutory reserves for advancing funds to micro lending. For the time being, the Kafalat program remains the best non-commercial loan. Kafalat is the loan guarantee corporation whose shareholders are the National Institute for the Guarantee of Deposits and 50 commercial banks. The company was established in 1999 and its portfolio of loan guarantees has seen a tremendous increase from mid 2002, to reach a total amount of $199.2 million at the end of February 2004. With 1,355 loans, agriculture accounted for almost half of all guarantees awarded.

“Our loans are convenient, because they are cheap and more importantly, they are long-term,” said Kafalat chairman, Khater Abi Habib. Loans benefiting from the scheme, under which Kafalat guarantees 75% of principal and interest up to a ceiling of $200,000, can go a long way to help farmers restructure their activities, or enter new activities on land that had been under-exploited.

As it does not stipulate a minimum loan amount, the scheme could also be accessible to clients whose needs are in the range of micro finance. Kafalat as a rule processes loan guarantee requests within three weeks. A characteristic of the program suited to the needs of small businesses, and farmers in particular, is the low reliance on real estate collateral. “With the presence of our guarantees,” Abi Habib said, “it has not become totally easy but much easier.”

While not designed to finance major agro-industrial projects, the scheme allows the infusion of larger amounts into agro-industry through the nation’s industrial lending program. “I saw a number of agro-industrial concerns financed by central bank-subsidized loans creating sure markets for agriculturalists as suppliers of raw materials,” said Abi Habib, “and those agriculturalists are in turn being financed by banks on basis of the strength of the purchase contracts given to them by agro-industrialists, plus the strength of market developments and guarantees given by Kafalat.”

As medium-term facilities, the low-interest seven-year loans with a one-year grace period are suited to the needs of most agriculturalists. One sub sector of agriculture to which the parameters of Kafalat loan guarantees are less well suited, however, is tree farming. To start operation of an orchard, a farmer needs finance facilities that are repayable over 12 to 15 years, with a three-year grace period. For this, Kafalat guarantees are inadequate and a source of long-term funding would be needed, with possible sponsors including Lebanon’s usual partners in lending and aid programs, such as the World Bank, EU and their affiliated finance institutions.

The loan guarantee company is engaged in continuous efforts to inform its client base of existing or potential small and medium entrepreneurs. “The best marketing is for us to be in the midst of our potential users,” said Abi Habib, “the north is our weakest market, and that’s why the largest portion of our visits and activities is now to the north.”

Lebanon’s Investment Development Authority, IDAL, figures twofold in the task of promoting the national agriculture and agro-industry sectors. Under the 2001 investment law 360, the agency offers incentives to investments into strategic sectors of the economy, including agriculture and agro-industry. For the past three years, the IDAL mandate also extended to supporting agricultural exports through the Export Plus program offering farmers transportation subsidies and quality certification for produce. In February 2004, IDAL and the nation’s agro-industrialists signed a collaboration for an Agro Market Access Program (Agromap). EXECUTIVE talked to IDAL chairman and managing director, Samih Barbir, about the agency’s achievements and plans in relation to the agro sector.

Where does IDAL set its priorities in supporting agriculture and agro-industry?

In Lebanon, we don’t have large volumes in agricultural production. Therefore, our main priority is quality. The successful experience of Export Plus of having two international firms implementing quality control has proven to be a very important factor in marketing Lebanese agricultural products abroad.

When you discuss Export Plus as a success story, where are the highlights, and what are the areas still in need for development?

The level of success is simply the fact that we witnessed an increase in our exports. In the first year, it was a big increase of 15%, in the second year, 5%, and last year, it was stabilizing. But one has to look at it in a different way. Before the launch of Export Plus, we were on a downward slope. Exports were dropping and the whole sector was suffering a lot, due to many problems. Maintaining a stable level of approximately 360,000 tons in exports per year is a success in itself. We experienced some additional difficulties, such as some bad weather hitting Lebanon over the last two years, the devaluation of the currency in Turkey and the war in Iraq, all of which affected our export markets.

In your statistics, 99% of agricultural exports went to GCC countries, plus Syria and Jordan. What can IDAL do to improve agro exports across other markets?

The GCC are the natural market. The Iraqi market is a new one that we are trying to enter right now. But our main objective is to enter European markets. We are doing a lot of contact work with all the embassies here, especially Eastern European ones. As a first target, we are trying to enter those countries that have the least obstacles.

Your 2003 report states that about 5% of agricultural products destined for exports to Arab countries were rejected in quality inspections. Would the same quality requirements apply to produce destined for Europe?

Exports to Europe would have to meet higher and different quality requirements. They have some very strict controls on pesticide residues and other issues that are not required by Arab countries. That is why we have to inform those farmers prior to starting to control their products.

On the other side of the coin, IDAL has the mission to draw in investments. How is this progressing as far as attracting agricultural investors?

We offer the same incentives to projects in all the sectors listed in the [Investment Development] law, as are tourism, ICT, agro-industry, industry in general and agriculture. The only difference is that agricultural projects have the lowest minimum investment requirements to qualify for incentives.

How have agricultural and agro-industry projects fared in terms of attracting investors?

We have two agro-industry projects that are being processed under the one-stop-shop service. The law is still relatively new and the incentives are new. It takes some time to let people know about it. We are planning to do a campaign by the middle of this year, to promote those incentives. But definitely, compared to tourism, it is still very shy.

Can you name an amount for the value of one of those two projects, to give an idea of the magnitude?

The project that has progressed further is for $4.3 million. Don’t expect to get big figures in this industry.

How much funding for agricultural export promotion do you have at your disposal?

The Export Plus program was approved for LL100 billion spread over the four years, 2001 to 2004.

How much have you dispersed to date?

A bit less than LL30 billion each year. We can handle the program until the end of this year. We might need some more [funding] but there is no problem in that. Theoretically, it should be covered.

Under the new Agromap project, you are sponsoring participation of Lebanese exhibitors in trade shows in Beirut, Paris, and New York. How does this interlace with the promotion of agricultural exports under Export Plus, where you described the strongest markets and prospects as being in the Gulf and Eastern Europe?

With Agromap, we are targeting a different sector, agro-industry, and are promoting Lebanese agro-industry products. We are doing this as a pilot project in 2004 and I wanted to reach the Arab, European and North American markets, to see what the impact would be. We will evaluate each event right afterwards and depending on those three events, we could consider going into another round with a bigger budget in 2005.

Did you allocate equally to each fair, Horeca in Beirut, the Fancy Food Show in New York, and Sial in Paris?

Between the US and France, there will be equal space. Lebanon will be bigger. Here, much more people will come because they do not have the transportation issue. Horeca also accounts for biggest amount in the budget.

How was the response from the industry?

The first results are very good. For Horeca, we have about 35 industrialists and for the Fancy Food Show about 15. We are over-subscribed but I wouldn’t call that a problem. We will have the luxury to choose the best products to represent Lebanon abroad.

What will you provide to the companies that qualify for participation?

We will have a Lebanese pavilion, and we will cover 100% of the rent and the stand decorations. Exhibitors will have to cover their transportation and other costs.