Syrian war causes "neighbors" to lose 35 billion USD
"During the years of the Syrian war, Lebanese farmers suffered losses of $10 billion, and the manufacturing sector lost $25 billion. Not only that, the losses are still continuing," Ibrahim al-Tarshishi, secretary general of the Lebanese Association of Importers and Exporters, told Sputnik.
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| Lebanon's proximity to Syria has hurt its manufacturing sector due to the civil war in the neighboring country. Photo: Asia Times |
The agricultural sector has nowhere to sell its products. Many goods are transported through Syria to Jordan and Saudi Arabia through the Nasib checkpoint.
After the station closed, Lebanese farmers were left in despair, as the roughly 550,000 tons of vegetables and fruits harvested each year had to be exported somewhere, said Ibrahim al-Tarshishi.
"The Lebanese government has allocated $50 million to establish maritime transport. However, this has not yielded any results, the output prices for Lebanese products are too high. As a result, fruit prices in Lebanon have fallen sharply, and many farmers have abandoned their gardens."
"Because of the war, we also lost the Syrian market, which was the second largest market for goods purchased from Lebanon after Saudi Arabia. Before that, Syria bought about 50,000 tons of the best Lebanese vegetables and fruits every year."This was announced by Ibrahim al-Tarshişi, Secretary General of the Association of Importers and Exporters of Lebanon.
According to Mr. Ibrahim al-Tarshishi, the Lebanese agricultural sector is in a state of crisis, and even if the neighboring country ends the war as soon as possible, it will take his country many years to restore pre-war production levels.
