Non-Lebanese products promoted and branded as Lebanese have been found on shelves in Europe as Lebanon’s Industry Ministry works to take action against countries falsely branding their locally-produced food items as Lebanese.
The head of the Industrialists’ Group in Beqaa, Nicolas Abou Faisal, pointed out in a statement that an image of Egyptian products found in European markets bears the name “Tannourine” and the Lebanese cedar.
Faisal said this happens while Lebanese industrialists “are quarantined in their homes by a ministerial decision.”
The Industry Ministry recently announced that it would pursue legal action against what it called “an encroachment,” namely the false marketing of foreign food products as Lebanese by some countries.
The Ministry also warned of the repercussions of the lockdown on Lebanese industrialists and exporters, saying they are at risk of “losing their markets” to foreign competitors abroad.
As Lebanon entered its strictest lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic, there were calls by local industrialists for an exemption that would allow them to continue working during the closure.
“We asked that all industrial sectors open because they have foreign contracts that they must secure,” Georges Nasrawi, the vice-president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, said in a statement last week.
He stressed that the lockdown negatively affects the economic situation in the country as he reiterated the call for an exemption.
