Within the framework of strengthening Arab agricultural cooperation and expanding markets for Lebanese products, Minister of Agriculture Nizar Hani held a virtual meeting with Iraqi Minister of Agriculture Abdul Rahim Jassim Al-Shammari, in the presence of Director General of Agriculture Louis Lahoud and a number of officials, to discuss mechanisms for developing agricultural cooperation between the two countries.
At the beginning of the meeting, Hani stressed the depth of Lebanese-Iraqi relations, stressing the importance of transforming them into practical and sustainable cooperation programs that enhance Arab food security, develop agricultural value chains, and increase opportunities for investment and trade exchange.
The Lebanese minister presented three priorities for cooperation, including establishing a Lebanese-Iraqi agricultural committee that would later expand to include Syria and Jordan, and enhancing Lebanese agricultural exports to Iraq, especially fruits, milk, its derivatives, and poultry, in addition to inviting his Iraqi counterpart to participate in the opening of the Agri Lebanon 2026 exhibition next November.
For his part, Al-Shammari affirmed his full support for activating the joint agricultural committee, declaring the readiness of the technical teams in the two ministries to immediately begin discussing files related to facilitating the flow of Lebanese exports to the Iraqi market.
He pointed out that cooperation will also include developing wheat production and the seed sector, modernizing agricultural quarantine procedures, combating soil salinity, promoting smart agriculture and agricultural innovation, in addition to encouraging the establishment of Lebanese-Iraqi companies specialized in agricultural production and investment.
Hani welcomed the Iraqi proposals, calling for the preparation of a modern protocol for agricultural quarantine that keeps pace with international standards, and the adoption of a weekly communication mechanism between the technical teams. He proposed holding the first meeting of the Joint Agricultural Committee during next September, to be expanded later to include Syria and Jordan.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the two sides agreed to assign the Director General of Agriculture in Lebanon and the Technical Undersecretary in the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture to follow up on direct coordination, and to establish executive mechanisms and a timetable for launching the Joint Agricultural Committee, in a way that enhances agricultural cooperation between the two countries and opens new horizons for Lebanese agricultural production.
