Price increase before delivery of crops

Last year, fires that burned in several areas destroyed large areas of tobacco crops in the southern region. At the time, no one compensated the farmers, despite repeated calls to increase prices by 20% to make up for the losses. This year, also around the same time, new tobacco crops were burned in the same area. Although the areas burned were smaller than last year, their loss this year has doubled. Apart from losing the fire, which did the financial economic crisis and with it the costs of growing tobacco increased exponentially. So they started a protest movement hoping to make their voices heard before the Tobacco Inventory Department and Reggie take over their crops early next week.

From the south to the Bekaa and the north, farmers ask the state to do them justice in the face of the crisis of the two seasons, increasing the delivery prices of the tobacco harvest by 150%, to compensate them at least for the costs they paid for the season in dollars and to maintain a small enough profit margin to support their livelihood. They start with their calculations that led them to that percentage of the fact that “what was valid last year no longer applies today,” says farmer Habib Yaghi. In the past, the price of a kilo of tobacco ranged between 10 and 15 thousand pounds, depending on the type of tobacco. Today, it has become impossible to keep up with this price, especially since farmers pay the costs of agriculture in dollars or its equivalent in lira, based on the black market exchange rate. This is what they don’t find “fair,” says Habib. The latter lists some of the farmers’ costs, ranging from farm supplies to medicines, fertilizers, crops and more. For example, “Last year, we bought bags of chemicals for twenty dollars or 30,000 pounds. This year we paid 160,000 pounds for the bag.” Suffice it to say: “We will not accept 12,000 pounds this year.” At least, what they demand is that the price of a kilo of tobacco is close to “the price of a kilo of meat or tea.” In the past, they used to calculate their earnings this way, “One kilo of tobacco is used to buy one kilo of meat or one kilo of tea.” This year, the worst type of tea sells for 30,000 and a kilo of beef for 35,000 and 40,000, so how can the price of tobacco stay at 12,000 or 15,000?

Farmers demand a 150% price increase, while the Finance Ministry initially agreed to 50%

This is simple math, but for tobacco growers it is their life between two seasons. However, what farmers are counting does not appear to match what the state can do. The head of the Federation of Tobacco Trade Unions in Lebanon, Hassan Fakih, points out that “as a federation we demand an increase of 150%, but the Ministry of Finance accepted in principle the increase of 50%. , Since this is the maximum possible in such circumstances ». However, farmers have not yet responded to what the state “imposed.” This is what they say, based on the fact that the approved price is not balanced and does not cover part of the costs that farmers pay. For this reason, Fakih points out that today there is a meeting between the Regie administration and the Union Federation of Tobacco Growers to agree on everything “including detailing the price barim and how the delivery will be.”
Farmers are waiting for this meeting, since it is their last blow before the start of the delivery in the southern region on Monday 26 of this month. The region alone produces five million kilograms, while the Bekaa and North regions produce 3 million kilograms.

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