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Pioneering Producer Believes Intensive Olive Farming Is the Future in Lebanon

By Daniel Dawson

May. 9, 2024 14:09 UTC

As Lebanon’s economic crisis enters its fourth year, its agricultural sector stands at a crossroads.

According to a November 2023 article from the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a think tank, the crisis has compounded pre-existing challenges in the sector, including high production costs, skilled labor shortages and the highly fragmented nature of Lebanese farming.

The olive-growing world is adopting new technology, but everyone in Lebanon is still following the old ways.- Charbel Jaoude, founder, CBio Jaoude

Charbel Jaoude, an architect and founder of CBio Jaoude, believes planting high-density and super-high-density groves is the answer to tackling these challenges in the country’s olive sector.

Olive oil production has long been an essential part of Lebanese agriculture. About one-fourth of the country’s arable land – 56,400 hectares – is covered by olive groves.

Most of these groves are found in the coastal mountains in western and southern Lebanon, where there is more rain. However, the rugged terrain prevents planting at high-density or super-high-density and precludes using machines to harvest the trees.

Jaoude believes these intensive methods of olive cultivation are necessary for the sector to overcome the economic crisis by lowering production costs and decreasing labor requirements while allowing farmers to maintain quality.

“The olive-growing world is adopting new technology, but everyone in Lebanon is still following the old ways,” he told Olive Oil Times.

In 2012, Jaoude became the first super-high-density olive farmer in the country, planting more than 11,500 Arbequina olive trees on nine hectares in the fertile Beqaa Valley. The valley comprises arid plains about 60 kilometers east of Beirut and is home to Lebanon’s most well-known wine-producing districts.

“After much study, I decided to plant super-high-density [spaced 1.35 meters by 3.75 meters] in Beqaa because the land is flat, with a lot of sun and good soil,” Jaoude said.

Jaoude originally planned to plant 200 hectares of olive trees but had difficulty buying enough land suitable for intensive olive growing. The average size of a single farm in Lebanon is 1.4 hectares, so acquiring large amounts of land can be a logistical challenge.

Instead, Jaoude decided to travel around the country and find interested partners to purchase more land and plant olive trees in the country’s flatter eastern and northern regions.

“I’m working to help more people plant super-high-density olive farms,” he said. “Over the past five years, we have planted 1.4 million Arbequina trees” at high-density and super-high-density in Beqaa and Akkar.

Jaoude said planting olive trees intensively allows him to harvest faster. Using machines, he harvests his entire grove in one day, yielding about 80 tons of olives. Previously, he said it took 40 to 50 workers a whole day to harvest two tons.

Additionally, he can remove pruning debris and spray kaolin clay more efficiently. Jaoude said each of these tasks takes about 30 minutes, allowing him to lower his labor costs tremendously.

Researchers in Spain have estimated that it costs 4.5 times more to produce a kilogram of olive oil from traditionally planted groves than from super-high-density groves.

Jaoude chose Arbequina trees because they are adaptable to intensive olive cultivation and are historically associated with the region.

While Arbequina is native to Catalonia, the variety was spawned from olive trees brought to Spain in the 18^th century by Medinaceli, the baron of Arbeca. The trees were shipped from Palestine, which included parts of modern-day Lebanon.

Due to the arid climate, Jaoude can cultivate the olives organically, using goat manure to fertilize the trees and kaolin clay to keep pests away. He also maximizes the pollination potential by transporting his bees into the grove each spring.

Water availability is the main challenge for intensive olive cultivation in the Beqaa Valley and northern Lebanon. Due to low precipitation levels, Jaoude must irrigate his olives twice weekly.

He criticized Lebanese water policy as the main limiting factor to olive growing in the region. Jaoude said there is plenty of available water, but a 1994 agreement with Syria prohibited new wells from being drilled in the Beqaa Valley to pump water.

He has since negotiated an exemption with local officials, but this treaty remains a significant hurdle in expanding super-high-density olive groves.

Despite the water sourcing challenges, Jaoude produced five tons of extra virgin olive oil in the 2023/24 crop year. As the olive trees mature, he anticipates the olive oil yields will continue to increase.

In its preliminary harvest estimate published in November, the International Olive Council forecasted Lebanon to produce 18,000 tons of olive oil, slightly above the five-year average.

Since then, many olive groves in the south of the country have been damaged and olive growers displaced as Israeli forces have exchanged fire with Hezbollah, a political party and militant group with links to Iran. As a result, Lebanese production will fall below this initial estimate.

Still, Jaoude is optimistic that national production will increase as more high-density and super-high-density groves mature and investors see the opportunity presented by the cultivation method in eastern and northern Lebanon.

Pioneering Producer Believes Intensive Olive Farming Is the Future in Lebanon

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