On January 28th, 2020 Expertise France along with 180 stakeholders gathered in Beirut, Lebanon for the closing ceremony of the Private Sector Development Programme (PSD). Click here for the MP4.
Financed by the European Union, the programme provided technical assistance to SMEs in the regions of Tripoli (wood), Bekaa (table grapes and cherries), and Akkar (avocado and market gardening).
ICON-INSTITUT GmbH successfully implemented Component 1 of the PSD Programme which provided technical and business support to actors of the table grapes and cherry value chains – from farmers to Post-Harverst Units and exporters – in Zahle, the capital of the Bekaa region. Some of the results of Component 1 include:
AGVISOR, Agricultural Mobile Application
AGVISOR is the first comprehensive and user-friendly agricultural mobile application in Lebanon. The Value Chain Information System was set up, launched and currently active with over 3,500 users. The results of this activity can be summarized two-fold: on the one hand, the Information System (IS) in the form of an application (“Agvisor”) has been fully developed; and on the other hand, it is fully functional with a directory which maps 1,200 value chain stakeholders, including table grape and cherry farmers, and 71 downloadable reports related to the various topics covered by the project.
The MERULA Brand
The MERULA is a brand of Lebanese table grapes and cherries produced by farmers following international guidelines of the Integrated Crop Management (ICM) Certification.
Merula is a bird typical to Lebanon known for its melodious song and fine taste in picking the best cherries and table grapes letting farmers know when these are ready for harvest.
The brand was welcomed by the public as seen in the in-store promotion activities carried out in June/ July for cherries and in September for table grapes. The results of the in-store promotions were quantified in the sales, which totaled to almost 10,000 kg of cherries and over 15,000 kg of table grapes.