Development of olive growing in the north of Lebanon

From the 11th to 15th of November a delegation of olive growers and institutional representatives from the Akkar region, a rural area in the north of Lebanon, will come back to Umbria for the second training and technical assistance mission aimed to improving their professional skills and their knowledge of olive growing.

Following the one carried out in April, the mission is the second of a series of missions that will be realized in Umbria in the next months. It is carried out in the framework of the project “Development of olive growing in the north of Lebanon”, promoted by FELCOS Umbria, ANCI Umbria and the Union of Municipalities “Terre dell'Olio e del Sagrantino” (Lands of Oil and Sagrantino), with the contribution of the Umbria Region, through the Regional Law 26/99, and the ART Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme, which is the reference actor for the implementation of the activities in Lebanon.

The training sessions will be held by Massimo Sisani, President of the Foligno Inter-municipal section of CIA Umbria (Italian Confederation of Farmers) and vice-president of the Umbrian Sanitation Consortium, and by Yuri Amantini, Directo of the “Frantoio di Spello – Uccd Società Cooperativa Agricola” (Spello Oil Mill – Uccd Agricultural Cooperative).

The overall objective of the project is to support the local development of  Akkar, a rural area among the most underdeveloped in Lebanon, from an economic point of view. The project  targets 200 olive growers members of the Agricultural Cooperative of Khirbet Char, 8 oil mills managers in the Drieb area in Akkar and the members of the Middle-Drieb Union of Municipalities.

In particular, the project aims to reach the following objectives:

• improve the skills and capacities of Akkar olive growers regarding olive tree parasites, tree pruning, olive harvesting;

• improve the professional skills of the oil mill managers with regards to the process of pressing and hygiene standards;

• improve associationism capacity among producers and their marketing and promotion capacity;

• improve Lebanese local authorities capacity of promoting the territory and local products and to support local development processes.

Furthermore, various institutional meetings are scheduled. In fact, during these days the Lebanese delegation will meet the mayor of Foligno, Nando Mismetti; the mayor of Spello, Moreno Landrini; the mayor of Trevi, Bernardino Sperandio; Maria Pia Bruscolotti, the President of the Union of Municipalities “Terre dell'Olio e del Sagrantino”, who is also mayor of Massa Martana. All happy to welcome and host the olive growers in Umbria, a region well known for its olive growing tradition.

Other partners of the project are: North Lebanon Local Development Agency (LEDA North Lebanon); the Association of the Cooperatives for the development of the olive sector in Drieb region in Akkar, Lebanon; the Middle Drieb Union of Municipalities, Lebanon and the Association Route of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil DOP of Umbria. The group of five Lebanese olive growers will be accompanied by a LEDA North Lebanon expert who will guarantee the transmission of knowledge and techniques learned during the permanence-study in Umbria to the other cooperative members, once back in Lebanon, through the organization of free training workshops, ensuring a multiplier effect of the expected results.

The project, lasting eleven months, will end with a final public conference, to be held in Umbria, for the presentation and restitution to the territory of the activities carried out to support the olive growing in Lebanon.

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