Lebanon - Agriculture

In 2000, 4% of the working population was engaged in agricultural activity, and agriculture accounted for about 12% of GDP. Less than 30% of Lebanon's land is arable, and expansion of cultivated areas is limited by the arid and rugged nature of the land.

Agricultural production was severely disrupted by the 1975–76 war, and production of citrus fruits, the main crop, was reduced to low levels in the fertile Bekaa Valley by Israeli-Syrian fighting during 1982. Principal crops and estimated 1999 production (in thousand tons) were sugar beets, 290; potatoes, 250; oranges, 155; apples, 118; lemons and limes, 111; bananas, 105; olives, 90; grapefruit, 54; and wheat, 58. In 2001, Lebanon exported $169.1 million in agricultural products (19% of total exports) and imported $1.2 billion (16.6% of all imports). Two profitable, albeit illegal, crops produced are opium poppy (for heroin) and cannabis (for hashish). A joint Lebanese-Syrian eradication effort has practically wiped out the opium crop and significantly reduced the cannabis crop.