On 13 March 2026, QOOT Lebanese Agrifood Cluster organized an online consultation titled “Voices from the Ground,” bringing together 49 participants, including 45 QOOT cluster member businesses and ecosystem partners. The session was designed as a rapid listening exercise to capture, in real time, how agrifood enterprises across Lebanon are being affected by current disruptions and how they are responding on the ground.
It is important to note that not all mitigation measures discussed during the consultation were being implemented across all participating businesses; rather, several were shared by more mature or more prepared companies as practical recommendations and peer-learning insights for others still building their response capacity.
All participating businesses were QOOT members, representing a broad cross-section of the agrifood value chain, including food processing, fresh agricultural production, milling, beverages, agrifood services, and small and medium-sized enterprises serving both domestic and export markets.
More than a routine consultation, the initiative reflected QOOT’s role as a platform for sector dialogue, collective intelligence, and coordinated resilience-building. As Lebanon’s agrifood innovation and business cluster, QOOT is uniquely positioned to capture these realities directly from the field through its network of member enterprises operating across subsectors, geographies, and market segments. The consultation therefore served not only as a space for businesses to voice concerns, but also as a collective diagnostic mechanism, allowing individual experiences to be translated into a broader reading of sector-wide challenges, responses, and support priorities.
A Sector Under Cumulative Pressure
The consultation made one fact particularly clear: agrifood SMEs in Lebanon are not dealing with a single disruption, but with the compounded effects of multiple crises. Years of financial collapse, inflation, declining purchasing power, restricted access to finance, fragile trade conditions, and renewed insecurity have all converged to create an environment in which instability has become structural. For many businesses, the current disruptions are not the beginning of a crisis but another layer added to an already weakened operating environment.
This cumulative pressure affects every dimension of enterprise performance. Production planning has become more uncertain, procurement more difficult, logistics more fragile, and market engagement less predictable. Confidence itself has been weakened: confidence in supply continuity, in buyer commitment, in transport safety, and in the ability to plan beyond the very short term. The businesses consulted are still operating, but many are doing so from a position of reduced resilience and limited room for further shock absorption.
Market Access and Commercial Uncertainty
One of the strongest themes to emerge from the consultation was the deterioration of market access. Export-oriented businesses described increasing difficulty in sustaining commercial momentum in regional and international markets. For many agrifood enterprises, building export presence has required years of effort through product development, certification, trade fair participation, compliance work, and relationship-building with buyers. Yet in the current context, instability is affecting the perception of Lebanon as a reliable sourcing origin, making contracts more fragile and commercial relationships harder to sustain.
At the same time, the domestic market is not fully able to absorb the pressure. Consumers are also under severe economic strain, and this is affecting demand patterns, especially for higher-value, specialized, or non-essential products. Some businesses are redirecting export-oriented products toward local markets, but often at lower margins and in a context of volatile demand. The result is a commercial squeeze in which international channels are weakening while local demand remains insufficient to compensate fully.
Logistics, Distribution, and Operational Risk
Another major concern relates to logistics and distribution. Businesses reported increasing difficulty moving goods safely and efficiently across regions, particularly when operating from areas more exposed to disruption. Delays, route uncertainty, driver safety concerns, and increased transport costs are affecting continuity of supply and market access alike. For fresh and perishable products, these challenges are especially serious because time directly affects quality, shelf life, and commercial value.
In this context, logistics is no longer simply a support function. It has become a strategic vulnerability. A delayed shipment can mean missed sales, compromised product integrity, dissatisfied buyers, or direct losses. Many businesses are responding by adjusting routes, consolidating deliveries, and prioritizing markets that remain more accessible. Yet these measures remain partial and often costly, especially for smaller SMEs that do not have the scale or flexibility to manage repeated transport disruptions on their own.
Cost Escalation and Margin Compression
The consultation also highlighted a sustained increase in production and operating costs. Fuel and diesel prices, freight expenses, war-risk insurance, raw materials, fertilizers, packaging, and imported inputs are all becoming more expensive. Because many agrifood businesses rely directly or indirectly on imported materials, these increases are affecting almost all subsectors.
The problem is intensified by the fact that many businesses cannot fully transfer higher costs to the market. Domestic consumers are already under financial pressure, while export markets remain competitive and cautious. This is compressing margins across the sector. Businesses are paying more to produce, package, transport, and sell, while their room to increase prices remains limited. In response, many firms are cutting overhead, narrowing product portfolios, and reducing non-essential expenditures. These measures are rational and necessary, but they also indicate that many enterprises are preserving continuity by becoming leaner and more defensive.
Liquidity, Supply Chains, and the Human Burden
If one issue emerged as central to business survival, it was liquidity. Across the consultation, businesses stressed that access to working capital has become one of the strongest determinants of continuity. Even firms with viable products and stable customers can become vulnerable if they cannot finance wages, inputs, transport, and daily operations during periods of disruption. This is especially true for businesses that had recently invested in equipment, expansion, or market development and now face shrinking revenues with limited cash buffers.
Supply chain uncertainty compounds this pressure. Businesses described delays in receiving essential materials, constraints affecting suppliers, difficulty accessing production areas, and volatility in both price and availability of key inputs. This reduces predictability in procurement and production planning and pushes enterprises into reactive management. Some are diversifying suppliers and increasing safety stock where possible, but such measures often require additional liquidity that is already scarce.
Beyond operational and financial pressures, the consultation also revealed the psychological toll of prolonged crisis. Business owners and employees are functioning under constant uncertainty, fatigue, and safety concerns. Several participants emphasized the importance of preserving workforce stability and supporting employees despite severe pressure. This highlights an important reality: resilience is not only financial and operational, but also human.
Business Responses and Support Priorities
Despite these pressures, the consultation showed that QOOT cluster members are not passive. Businesses are actively adapting through practical mitigation measures. These include redirecting sales toward more accessible channels, rationalizing production, prioritizing core product lines, tightening cash management, reducing non-essential costs, diversifying suppliers, and preserving workforce cohesion wherever possible. These responses demonstrate resilience, pragmatism, and managerial discipline.
However, most of these measures are defensive rather than transformative. They help businesses survive, but they do not necessarily strengthen long-term competitiveness. Delayed training, postponed investment, reduced marketing, and narrowed operations may protect continuity in the short term while weakening future growth potential. This is one of the most important takeaways from the consultation: agrifood SMEs are adapting, but their internal capacity to absorb shock is narrowing.
The consultation also points clearly toward areas where support is most needed. First is liquidity support through working capital facilities, concessional finance, and rapid-response funding. Second is market continuity support to help preserve buyer confidence and maintain visibility in key channels. Third is cluster-based operational support, including shared logistics, pooled cold storage, collective sourcing, and warehousing solutions. Fourth is technical support in contingency planning, financial scenario management, and business continuity. Finally, support should also address the human side of resilience through peer exchange, coaching, and psychosocial support.
The “Voices from the Ground” initiative demonstrated the value of QOOT Cluster as a trusted coordination platform capable of mobilizing businesses, structuring their realities into evidence, and translating their voices into an actionable agenda. Lebanon’s agrifood SMEs remain essential to food availability, employment, rural linkages, and productive stability. Supporting their continuity is therefore not only a business priority, but a strategic national imperative.
