Abou Faour Warns against Threatening State as Shehayeb Vows to Fix Milk Prices

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Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayeb and Health Minister Wael Abou Faour held a joint press conference on Thursday over the food safety scandal, warning the owners of dairy factories that the state will not yield to their threats.

“We will not allow anyone pressure the state and the small producers... Greed is forbidden,” Abou Faour told reporters in comments on the protesters carried out by dairy farmers across the country last week over the fall in milk prices.

The farmers said last week during protests that the closure of labneh factories in the Bekaa was the main reason behind the drop in prices, dumping milk on the roads.

Economy Minister Alain Hakim ordered last week the closure of several labneh factories in the Bekaa valley for violating food safety regulations, causing a fall in the prices of the 1 liter of milk.

Abou Faour told reporters that the state will not yield to the demands of the violating owners of cheese and labneh factories.

Minister Shehayeb said that the dairy factories should abide by the safety regulations when manufacturing labneh and write the ingredients on the boxes.

He pointed out that the Economy and Labor ministries will hold a press conference on Monday to fix milk prices at LL1,100 after the prices fell to LL500.

Abou Faour also stressed that the “food safety campaign will continue and will not fade with time.”

“It's not a circumstantial campaign and takes a new perspective day after day,” he added.

Abou Faour said that health inspectors visited five mills located in the capital Beirut, and four of them turned out to be violating health safety conditions.

For his part, Shehayeb revealed that his ministry gave halawa and tahini factories until the end of December to rectify their conditions, warning of the measures that will be taken against violators.

H.K.

M.T.

Comments 6
Thumb -phoenix1 11 December 2014, 12:01

They said, Buy Made in Lebanon. Yet Made in Lebanon is retrograding in quality and increasing in costs. Since I as a consumer has the choice to buy from foreign products which in any case are superior, I will forget Made in Lebanon till it gets back to shape. Minister Abou Faour must be highly commended for doing a great job, and now by showing that he is not relenting, he has won the trust, respect and admiration of the people of Lebanon. Finally here comes a man with the courage to square it off with the mafia, who it seems believed that they could do anything and violate any laws. Most people have long since been calling for the new generation of politicians to replace the old and rusting guard, Mr. Abou Faour has proven that our calls are based on facts, the new generation is a lot more in line with our contemporary issues.

Thumb Machia 11 December 2014, 14:27

Finally a minister that actually works for us Lebanese citizens.

Thumb Machia 11 December 2014, 14:42

Justice Ashraf Rifi 0
Minister of State for Administrative Development Nabil de Freige 0
Labour Sejaan Azzi 0
Information Ramzi Jreij 0
Economy and Trade Alain Hakim 0
Tourism Michel Pharaon -5
Telecommunications Boutros Harb -10000000000000 (very disapointing)

Thumb Machia 11 December 2014, 14:43

*disappointing

Thumb Machia 11 December 2014, 14:43

Rating our ministers performance 0-10:
PM Tamam Salam 5
Deputy PM and Defence Samir Mokbel 3
Displaced Alice Shabtini 0
Youth and Sports Abdel Mouttaleb Hennaoui 0
Environment Mohammed Machnouk 1
Social Affairs Rashid Derbass 0
Public Health Wael Abou Faour 8
Agriculture Akram Chehayeb 3
Foreign and Expatriates Gebran Bassil -1000000000000000000000000
Education and Higher Learning Elias Abou Saab 2

Culture Raymond "Rony" Araiji 0
Energy and Water Arthur Nazarian - 5
Finance Ali Hassan Khalil 1 simply because he is not stealing yet
Public Works and Transportation Ghazi Zaiter -1
Industry Hussein Hajj Hassan - 2
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammed Fneish -1
Interior and Municipalities Nouhad Machnouk 0

Thumb Machia 11 December 2014, 14:46

Actually Energy and Water Arthur Nazarian - 20000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000