00:00This is the biggest organic farm in Lebanon.
00:03It started as a small family project 15 years ago.
00:07But agriculture was not a major industry.
00:10But the Lebanese currency plummeted recently, making even the most basic foods unaffordable.
00:17Then, last August…
00:28A major blast that killed hundreds and destroyed Beirut's main port.
00:34The explosion was a wake-up call.
00:36In addition to the crisis and everything, we realized that it is the private sector.
00:41It is the farming industry that has to push forward for things to happen.
00:47Local producers like Biomass Farms stepped up to grow more vegetables and grains and feed
00:52a country where over half the population is now living in poverty.
01:01The Masoud family runs this farm in Jribta, Lebanon, 400 meters above sea level.
01:07Quite often, we have greenhouses being destroyed because of the storm or of the wind.
01:12Here, they grow 40 different crops, but that's only 1% of their production.
01:18Biomass operates 10 farms like this one and has 50 partners across the country.
01:22To ensure that we have enough production and we have access to the different microclimates
01:29in Lebanon so we can produce tomato in the summer, tomato in the winter, and we have citrus
01:33products and we have avocados and we have all of that.
01:35Until recently, Lebanon imported 80% of its basic needs, but the country's financial system
01:42collapsed in 2019 due to decades of government corruption and mismanagement.
01:48Everyday items like food became very expensive.
01:53That's when producing locally became a priority.
01:55What happened in the crisis is that export products became extremely expensive because
02:01of deflation.
02:02As a farming operator, we decided to focus much more on the local production and increase
02:08the variety of products and the capacity of production than we can do here locally.
02:12We're doing now a trial in the south of Lebanon on lentils, on chickpeas, on wheat products.
02:18And while Biomass is focusing on growth, they're also trying to keep costs down.
02:23One way of doing that is reducing dependency on importing raw materials, like fertilizer.
02:35And they've also begun trials to produce local animal feed.
02:40Our chickens are allowed or have to have outdoor access all day long.
02:44They have to eat organic feed and we import today this feed from France.
02:49As long as they import feed, the costs are high.
02:53Eggs were their best-selling products.
02:55But today, a carton of six biomass eggs cost four times what it used to.
03:00Things got even worse when Lebanon suffered a devastating setback.
03:11On August 4th, a massive explosion killed 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed more
03:19than 50,000 homes.
03:22We were among the first building in front of the port when the explosion happened.
03:26Luckily enough, it was after hours.
03:29Everything was destroyed, so there was a huge loss.
03:33Biomass lost warehouses, vehicles, five containers filled with imports, and their office was completely destroyed.
03:40Beirut was empty, it was a devastated city.
03:43And while an entire capital tried to rebuild, Biomass and other local producers felt a responsibility
03:50not to disrupt food supplies.
03:52We don't want to wait for the government, or we don't want to wait for external people
03:58to come and do things that should be done.
04:01But for local production to grow enough, they need money.
04:05The biggest challenge is access to funds and access to resources in doing that.
04:10With a crisis, the banking sector or the banking system is crippled today.
04:15And very few investors outside of Lebanon are looking to put their money in the country.
04:21But the Lebanese are known for two things, their resilience and their food.
04:25And Biomass is banking on both, hoping not only to provide Lebanon with food security,
04:30but even export its goods to the world.
04:33Lebanese foods globally is quite known.
04:36It fits to vegan, vegetarian diets.
04:38It's quite rich in terms of the dishes and the food products that you can offer.
04:43Part of the development of the company is to introduce more Lebanese products from Lebanon
04:48with their original recipe, original tastes.
04:51constitutes opposören.
04:59lado John
05:00They're also such a funny class for the asymmetry list.
05:00Who provides an elite to buy believable colocar ȘBIN
05:01They also pass all over the胸�를 that, therefore,
