U.S. Helps Lebanese Food Industries Enter International Markets

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Wednesday held a workshop under the Lebanon Business Linkages Initiative (LBLI) with the Syndicate of Lebanese Food Industries (SLFI) to increase knowledge about accessing international food markets.

Farmers, food industrialists, governmental officials, and academics attended this workshop. The project supports SLFI in developing a strategy to access the U.S. specialty food market.

“LBLI has promoted approximately 700 commercial relationships between growers, manufacturers, packers, and exporters under this three year project,” a statement by the U.S. Embassy said.

“This project supports SLFI in its efforts to develop a sector strategy that allows Lebanese business to take advantage of the U.S. specialty food market, increasing profits and providing jobs in the rural Lebanese economy,” it added.

The workshop was part of USAID’s LBLI program to build the capacity of small- and medium-sized enterprises in agribusiness and tourism, and to function as part of the economic value chain, and increase sales and export revenues that benefits Lebanon’s rural economy.

FHI Development 360 implements this program in partnership with ACDI/VOCA, Action For Enterprise (AFE), and local non-governmental organizations.