Olive oil collection center in the South

The Regional Union Cooperation in South Lebanon (RUCSL) and the Italian institution, Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria (ICU) have launched the Olive Oil Collection Center in Tayerfelsay, South Lebanon.

The European Union (EU) funded around $300,000 to build the center. This project is managed by the Ministry of State for Administrative Reform and implemented by ICU.

Salim Mrad, Chairman of RUCSL, said that the project aims to support olive growers in the South, enhancing their economic conditions and developing the sector. The center will purchase olive oil from farmers, testing, labeling, packaging, and marketing it locally. The center will collect oil from 42 unions that will join RUCSL.

In the future, the center will export part of its produce to Arab and European countries. Mrad said that the European Ambassador, Angelina Eichhorst, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, has shown interest in opening the European market to olive oil producers, if they complied with their standards.

The center will include a laboratory to test the acidity of the oil, as well as reservoirs for storing olives and bottling machines. It will store 100,000 liters of olive oil (5,000 tanks). The machines can fill around 1,000 bottles of 0.5 and 1 liter, per hour. The bottles will have brand names and labels, including the oil specifications, acidity level and origin.

Mrad said that farmers will have the opportunity to test the oil, pack it, and market it by themselves, or selling it to the center.