great tastes. great stories.
Youssef Fares, owner producer of Zejd, is not defeated by complex situations. The last five years of economic collapse, the port explosion in Beirut, and now with Israel’s destruction of parts of the Bekaa, the south and Beirut, Fares and the rest of the country are facing more than their fair share of stress. However, would the olive harvest in 2024 be the cherry on the top?
Fares’ olive groves are in Baino, in Akkar in the north of the country, which has been relatively untouched by Israel’s strikes. As a tenuous ceasefire holds in early December, we spoke with Fares to ask about this year’s harvest.
Lebanon didn’t have much rain this year, even in Akkar. This means that some of the olives harvested in Lebanon were woody. However, despite this we had a good harvest in Baino in terms of volume and quality.
Nearly a third of Lebanon’s olive farmers haven’t been able to harvest this year. Some farmland in the south has been damaged with phosphorus.
(According to George Mitri director of Land and Natural resources programme at Lebanon’s Balamand University 11,100 acres had been burnt by Israeli bombings calculated with satellite imagery done before November 2024.)
Studies are being carried out on the long term effects of phosphorus on land in the south. So far we don’t know how the damage will impact the agriculture there.
Replacing the destroyed olive trees is more complicated. The variety of olive trees most common in Lebanon – souri/sourani/baladi – aren’t like European olive varieties that produce a harvest in 3-5 years. It might take 20 years to get a good harvest from our native varieties in Lebanon.
Where we farm, trees are planted every 6 metres, whereas in Europe trees are planted at 3 metres distance or sometimes even at 1 metre. This kind of planting would only work in the Bekaa, which is flat, or in the planes of Akkar. However, for those farming on hills in Lebanon this isn’t feasible. So this means imported, non-native varieties (which produce a quicker crop) wouldn’t be a solution for most olive farmers in Lebanon. For farmers who have lost their trees, trying to reestablish their livelihood is going to take many, many years.
This year 30% of the country’s olives were not harvested. And we’re seeing a huge demand here in Lebanon. Even though there’s a big demand locally, prices have dropped by 15%, perhaps they’ll drop further later.
Europe has had a good harvest, unlike the previous year, so prices have dropped more than in Lebanon. Spain has 40% of the global market share of olive oil, which is why you’ll see a price reduction in supermarkets.
Everybody has been affected and we’re all trying to cope. Many people in Akkar have families who work in Beirut, so there was added stress worrying about them. After a strike near us in Akkar, farmers wanted to get their harvest in quickly, in case things escalated.
Our order of the new season’s extra virgin olive oil is being packed up and will be shipped shortly. Please feel free to contact us so we can let you know when our shipment arrives.
