2023-06-12 09:24:15
Alternative local industries have begun to increase in Lebanon, apparently in an attempt to compensate for imported products, which have become prohibitive and expensive in light of the stifling economic crisis experienced by the Lebanese.
The Lebanese local alternative industries include a range of products such as medicines and simple medical supplies and preparations.
The owners of factories in Lebanon found an opportunity to win over the Lebanese consumer who is unable to buy imported products, while a few Lebanese industrialists found in foreign markets an outlet to market locally made products.
The food industry occupies the forefront of the Lebanese local industries, benefiting from the distinctiveness of the Lebanese cuisine.
However, Lebanese industrialists complain of the state’s negligence in marketing their products and ignoring the importance of legislation protecting the industrial sector.
Lebanese factory owners complain regarding the lack of government support for them and the absence of any protection from competition from unlicensed factories.
And if the notes of the Lebanese pound have multiplied in an unprecedented manner following losing their cash value in the market, some of the medicine pills that are marketed and some of them are prescribed to reduce the headaches that afflicted the souls of some Lebanese, multiply at an amazing speed to meet the needs of the local market and perhaps invade the markets of neighboring countries.
Dozens of medicines are manufactured here and others are developed in research centers that have witnessed remarkable modernization since the Corona crisis and the lack of access to medicines and medical supplies due to global closures.
The Lebanese factories seized the opportunity and developed their small equipment and bought large equipment so that they might manufacture sufficient quantities for the local market and exceed it to the markets of other countries.
Opportunities from the womb of the crisis
Carol Abi Karam, General Manager of the Pharmaline Pharmaceutical Factory, says, “Since the establishment of the Pharmaline Factory, the plan was to manufacture medicines in line with international health standards. After the crisis, we developed the studies department and succeeded in developing 35 new medical products that are available in the local and foreign markets, and sales of our products increased.” From 2029 to today, it has increased by regarding 63%. We seek to manufacture a qualitative medicine in a sustainable manner, at prices that take into account the purchasing power of the Lebanese.
Liquidity decreased from the dollar and foreign currencies in the markets, so the owners of the factories resorted to liquefying the plastic material and designing packages filled with cosmetics and health care products.
This transformation saved the shelves of supermarket centers from the void left by consumer products that were lost from the market following it was not possible to pay their import costs.
From the neck of the economic crisis, an exceptional opportunity emerged, which was seized by the industrialists in Lebanon, who were unable to win over the Lebanese consumer over the years.
The Lebanese did not give their confidence to local products, although they were available before the years of the crisis.
However, they chose it unwillingly, following the prices of imported goods became beyond the capabilities of their wallets, which were saturated with a local currency, the value of which was no longer worth anything.
Those who were able to address the local consumer and meet his aspirations in the products he priced have succeeded. This helped the factory to develop dozens of varieties of cosmetic and health products that cover the entire body. This covered the needs of the local market and exceeded it to many markets in the region.
Back inside
“We benefited from the crisis because it generated a class of people seeking to support the local industry, in addition to a part of the consumers who forcedly chose locally manufactured goods before they found that they met their demands and competed with the prices of imported products,” says Joan Sarraf, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Malia Trading Group. .
In the decades before the collapse, the progress of the service sector in Lebanon seemed clear at the expense of the decline of the industrial sector, which would have been destroyed had it not been for the bitter attempts made by a few industrialists who found in foreign markets an outlet to market Lebanese-made products.
For his part, Paul Abi Nasr, a member of the Association of Industrialists, believes that the policy of stabilizing the national currency during the pre-crisis years led to an increase in its purchasing power, making imports less expensive than manufacturing. “For that day, and following the exchange rate was liberated, the industrial sector was liberated with it, and it was able to fill the void in the consumer markets.”
The industrial boom that took place in Lebanon came at a time when banks refuse to return deposits that might form the first building block for more factories, and they also refuse to provide loans to facilitate the first stages of establishing factories or increasing their capacities.
1686562932
#Lebanon. #local #industries #born #womb #economic #crisis
