A World Zero Waste Day message for agrifood SMEs
On the occasion of World Zero Waste Day, it is worth asking a practical question that concerns every agrifood business in Lebanon: when raw materials, by-products, and residual streams leave the production process, are they simply waste, or are they value being lost? Globally, this issue is far from marginal. FAO reports that 13.2% of food is lost before retail, while UNEP estimates that a further 19% of food available to consumers is wasted at retail, food service, and household levels, amounting to about 1.05 billion tons in 2022. Food loss and waste also account for around 8–10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and roughly USD 1 trillion in annual economic losses. For Lebanese agrifood SMEs, this is not only an environmental issue, but a direct business challenge linked to hidden costs, reduced efficiency, and missed revenue opportunities, particularly in a context of economic fragility and operational pressure.
By-products are not marginal; they are structurally significant
The scientific literature clearly shows that agrifood by-products are generated in large proportions and often retain substantial nutritional, functional, or industrial value. In cheese production, 1 kg of cheese typically generates around 9 kg of whey. In wine production, grape pomace commonly represents 20–30% of processed grape weight. In brewing, brewer’s spent grain is the main by-product, often generated at roughly 20 kg per 100 liters of beer. Citrus processing also produces substantial side streams rich in pectin, essential oils, fiber, and bioactive compounds. In olive oil production, only a limited share of the olive becomes oil, while a large proportion remains in pomace and wastewater streams.
This is highly relevant for Lebanon because the country already has the right industrial profile for circular agrifood solutions. Official and sectoral sources indicate that Lebanon produces around 25,000 tons of olive oil annually, around 190,295 tons of citrus, and roughly 7.2 to 9 million bottles of wine per year, depending on the year and source. In dairy, a recent UNIDO business case estimates that Lebanon generates around 220,000 tons of whey annually.
What this means in quantities
When production volumes are combined with the waste ratios reported in the literature, the scale becomes difficult to ignore. Estimates combine Lebanon production data with waste-generation ratios reported in the scientific literature. Values should be interpreted as indicative orders of magnitude intended to show the scale of underused agrifood by-products in Lebanon.
Table: Estimated quantities of major agrifood by-products in Lebanon
| Sector | Production indicator in Lebanon | Waste / by-product ratio | Estimated by-products generated annually | Main valorization potential |
| Wine | 7.2–9 million bottles/year | ~250 g residue/bottle; grape pomace ≈ 20–30% of grape weight | 1,800–2,250 tons | Polyphenols, compost, feed, cosmetic ingredients |
| Olive oil | ~25,000 tons oil/year | Oil yield ~18–25%; pomace generation reported at 40,000–79,000 tons/year in Lebanon | 40,000–79,000 tons | Energy, antioxidant extraction, biomaterials, soil amendments |
| Dairy | ~220,000 tons whey/year | ~9 kg whey per kg cheese | ~220,000 tons | Whey drinks, powders, protein concentrates, animal feed |
| Citrus processing | ~190,000 tons citrus/year | ~45–60% of processed fruit becomes residue | 17,000–34,000 tons* | Pectin, essential oils, fiber, animal feed |
| Brewing | Sector-dependent | ~20 kg spent grain / 100 L beer; spent grain ≈ 85% of brewing by-products | Sector-dependent; meaningful volumes | Flour, bakery ingredients, feed, fiber-rich ingredients |
| Coffee | 20,000–26,000 tons consumed annually | Spent grounds after brewing | 9,000–12,000 tons | Compost, cosmetics, biomaterials, energy |
What is the missed economic opportunity?
Estimating the economic value of these streams requires caution, as it varies depending on processing pathways and market applications. However, the literature consistently shows that agrifood by-products are rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds, such as proteins, fibers, and polyphenols, that can be transformed into value-added products across food, feed, and industrial applications .
In practical terms, streams such as whey, citrus residues, and grape pomace can be redirected toward ingredients, extracts, or functional applications rather than low-value disposal. Despite this, a significant share of these resources remains underutilized globally, with substantial volumes still directed toward low-value uses or waste streams .
Under conservative assumptions, and focusing on early-stage or gateway uses rather than premium applications, the underused by-products from dairy, olive oil, wine, citrus, brewing, and coffee in Lebanon likely represent a missed economic opportunity in the range of USD 20 million to 40 million per year. This should be understood as an order-of-magnitude estimate, reflecting the scale of recoverable value that remains structurally under-captured.
Why businesses do not act on this alone
If the opportunity is real, why is it still underexploited? The main constraint is not awareness, but feasibility. Valorization requires more than technical know-how; it depends on logistics, infrastructure, governance, and viable business models. FAO highlights transport costs, perishability, and insufficient infrastructure as key barriers to reducing food loss and enabling reuse at scale .
In practice, most by-product streams are fragmented, highly perishable, and require rapid stabilization or processing. For SMEs, these constraints, combined with limited financial and operational capacity, make individual solutions difficult to implement. The real challenge is therefore not the absence of value, but the absence of systems able to aggregate, stabilize, and convert these streams at scale.
Why policy now matters more than ever
To move beyond isolated initiatives, Lebanon’s policy framework needs to evolve. A key gap is the lack of clarity on when a residual stream can be treated as a by-product or secondary raw material, rather than strictly as waste. This distinction directly affects storage, transport, reuse, and investment decisions.
Addressing this requires not only regulatory clarification, but also targeted incentives, such as tax relief, accelerated depreciation, or co-financing schemes, to reduce the first-mover risk for companies investing in valorization systems and shared infrastructure. At the same time, this shift is becoming commercially relevant: under the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy, buyers are increasingly operating in environments that reward resource efficiency, traceability, and reduced waste across supply chains. For Lebanese exporters, this translates less into immediate compliance pressure and more into a gradual but clear shift in buyer preference toward more sustainable products.
Turning Strategy into Action: Available Support for SMEs
This transition is not starting from zero. Several ongoing programmes are already supporting Lebanese agrifood SMEs in improving resource efficiency and circularity. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in partnership with the European Union, has launched a €12.5 million programme specifically targeting industrial SMEs, particularly in the food value chain, through advisory services, capacity building, and cost-shared grants to implement resource-efficiency and waste-reduction solutions. At the same time, initiatives implemented by Berytech, such as WE4F (Water and Energy for Food), are supporting private-sector innovations that improve water, energy, and food efficiency through technical assistance and investment facilitation, helping SMEs scale sustainable solutions and reduce environmental impact. These programmes show that financing and technical support are increasingly available; the key challenge is therefore not access to funding alone, but the ability to structure viable, scalable projects, particularly around aggregation, pre-treatment, and market linkage, that can effectively absorb and sustain these investments.
Roadmap of Lebanese agrifood waste valorization
A structured approach to this challenge can be guided by the waste management hierarchy, which prioritizes prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery before disposal. For agrifood businesses, this implies focusing first on reducing losses at source and maximizing the value extracted from raw materials, rather than managing waste after it is generated.
Moving forward, Lebanon needs to transition from fragmented disposal practices to a coordinated by-product valorization model centered on priority streams with clear commercial potential. This requires four aligned actions: mapping key by-product flows (volumes, locations, seasonality), clarifying their legal status and enabling incentive schemes, investing in critical pre-treatment and logistics infrastructure (collection, stabilization, transport), and supporting specialized operators able to aggregate and transform these materials into marketable outputs.
Key bottlenecks remain well identified; fragmented volumes, perishable streams, limited infrastructure, weak downstream markets, financing gaps, and regulatory ambiguity. Addressing them requires coordinated ecosystem-level action, where infrastructure, policy, and business models evolve together to unlock the value currently trapped in the system.
