Jordan and Lebanon Align Agricultural Seasons to Boost Export Potential

A Calendar, Not a Competition: What the Amman Meeting Opens for Our Growers

According to Jordan's Petra news agency, Lebanese Agriculture Minister Nizar Hani sat down in Amman on Wednesday with Khalil Haj Tawfiq, president of both the Jordan Chamber of Commerce and the Amman Chamber of Commerce, to map out a deeper trade relationship between the two countries—one that could shift the rhythm of the harvest for everyone working Lebanese fields in the seasons ahead.

The two officials described a problem our growers know intimately: when neighboring countries push similar produce into the same markets at the same time, prices collapse and quality loses its premium. Haj Tawfiq suggested the answer lies in what he framed as comparative advantage—coordinating production seasons across Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, diversifying supply rather than duplicating it, and building complementary processed products alongside fresh ones.

For Lebanese cooperatives, the most tangible piece of the conversation is the role Jordan's existing trade agreements could play. Haj Tawfiq pointed to Jordan as a potential gateway for Lebanese produce into new export markets that our cooperatives have struggled to reach on their own. The numbers from the Amman Chamber give the conversation weight: of the 646 certificates of origin issued for exports to Lebanon since the start of 2026, 510 have covered agricultural goods—mainly mixed vegetables and fruits, agricultural seeds, and dates.

What Actually Gets Built Next

Hani brought more than diplomacy to the table. He proposed a joint Jordanian-Lebanese agricultural calendar that would map production seasons, market demand windows, trade opportunities, and processing activities side by side—giving cooperatives in both countries a shared planning tool rather than a guessing game. He also floated a specialized economic meeting that would bring private-sector representatives from both countries into one room, with agriculture and food industries given clear priority.

And there is a date worth circling on the wall: Hani invited Jordanian companies to Agri Lebanon 2026 in Beirut this November. For our cooperative boards, that gathering is the first real chance to put faces to the framework and start sketching out which of your current crops and seasons could fit into a coordinated regional rhythm.

What to Do Before November

The opportunity here is concrete rather than abstract, so the homework is too. Start by listing the three or four products your cooperative currently exports or hopes to export, and mark which months they hit the market. Then check that list against the Lebanese harvest calendar and the seasonal windows Jordanian growers already work within—if there is overlap, that is the first conversation worth having at Agri Lebanon. Reach out to the Amman Chamber of Commerce through the Jordan Chamber's liaison desk to flag your cooperative as a potential partner for the November meeting, and bring two questions with you: which of your products could fill a gap in the Jordanian calendar, and which processed lines could carry your blemish-free surplus into regional markets before it loses value.