10 September 2014
BEIRUT: In restaurants across Lebanon, diners may have noticed something missing inside their fried kibbeh and atop their jellab. The pine nut, a staple of Lebanese cuisine, has all but disappeared. A global shortage, together with a rise in demand, has driven up costs.As a result, chefs are substituting less expensive nuts in their recipes, leaving out the exorbitantly priced nut that industry insiders refer to as white gold.
This is a natural response to the current market prices, said Nadim Rawda, vendor of homemade Lebanese meals at the bustling Souk El-Tayeb market downtown.
Its like when you have a car, and the cost of the gas is high, you can use a bicycle
Rawda, a member of Lebanons Food Heritage Foundation, began to feel the pinch of high prices four years ago. Little by little, walnuts began replacing pine nuts in his fried kibbeh and muhammara, a spicy red pepper spread.
He remembered when pine nuts were $40 per kilo in 2010. Now, the price per kilo ranges from $66 to $80, depending on the grade.
I would put pine nuts in [my dishes] if I could. It becomes tastier, more buttery, but its also more expensive, Rawda said.
Throughout history, humans have found much to love about pine nuts beyond their great taste. The Greeks and Romans celebrated them as an aphrodisiac. In modern times, nutritionists celebrate their antioxidant properties.
Lebanese pine nuts, fruity and buttery on the tongue, are considered superior in quality to other less expensive varieties, such as the Chinese, Turkish and Pakistani ones. Grown primarily in the forests of Metn and Jezzine, their disappearance is connected to the increased price of labor, and changing environmental factors, such as rising temperatures, insect invasions, and, in Lebanons case, water scarcity.
The shortage isnt just a Lebanese problem. As news agency Bloomberg reported last year, pine nuts are growing scarcer globally. Early 2013 saw a 63 percent drop in harvest in the Mediterranean region alone.
Maroun Aziz, president of The Cooperative of Native Tree Producers of Lebanon manages the forest of Bkassine. With 500 hectares of pine trees located just south of Jezzine, its the largest area of pine nut production in Lebanon. He estimated that Bkassine had seen a 35 percent decrease in harvest between 2010 and 2013.
We expect it to fall further in the coming years, he said. The youngest pinecones, which take three years to mature and produce nuts, already show signs of illness due to invasive insects and lack of adequate rainfall over the past winter.
Local restaurants have had to make tough choices in response to rising costs. Abu Naim Abi Darwich, of Abu Naim restaurant in Beiruts Hamra neighborhood, said that the cost for a kilo of pine nuts had become prohibitively expensive.
Its a luxury. People like it, but it isnt essential for cooking, he said.
Though some customers prefer pine for the nuts distinctive creamy flavor, Abi Darwich has found it a challenge to use them in his recipes and keep prices affordable.
He has replaced them with walnuts in the fried kibbeh and started topping his tajen with sliced almonds and cashews.
The main reason for the steep cost is the rising price of labor, said Maya Nehme, professor and researcher of forest entomology and reforestation at the Lebanese University.
She said that several years ago, the workers each used to work for $20-30 per day, but now required at least $60 per day, due to the life-threatening nature of the work.
During the harvest season of November to February each year, workers use long ladders to climb the trees, and then clamber further up the tree branches into the canopy, where the best pinecones are found. With a hook, they try to hit each mature pinecone to the ground below, where a second worker keeps count and dodges falling cones.
Many choose to forego protective gear for the sake of speed, as they are required to collect a set amount in a handful of days.
Labor crews are comprised mostly of Syrians. Since they have specialized knowledge of harvesting, they face little competition to drive wages down.
There are only a few people who can do it and willing to take the risk, Nehme said.
Everything in the value chain has increased. The workers cost more, the insurance costs more, the processing and treatment cost more.
Cones must be gathered and spread on rooftops where the suns heat opens them; a process that can take up to two months. Many harvesters rent machines that separate nuts from cone scales. Before the nuts reach dinner plates or grocery store shelves, they must be stripped of their black outer shells.
Nehme is currently researching the impact of insects and pathogens on pine trees. In recent years, insects have been invading the cones, and this, together with the high heat and the decrease in rainfall, is causing the trees to show signs of physiological stress.
Research is focusing on the insects and assessing the damage they cause. Nehme and her research team are trying to determine the exact species.
This is new to Lebanon; its not been recorded before, she said.
Cones are more frequently being found empty of seeds, an issue that she said had begun in the Mount Lebanon area and had then moved to Jezzine.
When empty of seeds, the cones float in water. At last years harvest, 20 percent of them floated, there were no seeds. This number is very concerning, Nehme said.
Pine nut harvester Hicham Hariz, of Metn, sells his home-baked Lebanese products at the Saturday market at Beiruts Souk El-Tayeb each week. In addition to expensive labor costs and the pressure of unpredictable weather conditions, he said that insects and disease had ravaged many of his cones in the past several harvest seasons.
For every 10 seeds, only three are good, he said.
He said that the Agriculture Ministry had promised to help assess the cause, but no one ever came.
He has raised prices, but not without consequences. Three years ago restaurant owners were buying 50 kilos from him on a regular basis. Now the same customers are only buying 5 kilos.
This past year, I lost quite some money from my yield, Hariz said.
A future of dwindling harvests means even leaner financial times ahead for growers like Hariz, who now increasingly depends on food sales from the Souk El-Tayeb to supplement his income.
Am I afraid? Of course, and this year is even scarier, he said.
Nearby, a customer approached his table, asking for a kilo of pine nuts, but at $64, the cost gave her pause.
Ok, just half a kilo, she said.
Copyright The Daily Star 2014.
