Almond Orchard Management in Lebanon: Practices, Risks & Practical Solutions

LARI's 2002 to 2003 survey sampled cultivated almond stands from 134 to 976 m, in a humid littoral zone and a drier inland zone. Most plantings were of grafted trees, largely on marginal land, mixed with other fruit trees or scattered at orchard edges. The survey also found 30 commercial orchards of 0.2 to 3 ha, planted chiefly with the local Halwani and lying mainly in the Bekaa valley, where the risk of frost damage is high.

The 2008 almond booklet of the Ministry of Agriculture and LARI advises planting below 1,200 m, avoiding heavy, wet soils, and planting from late November to early December or in January and February. It names wild bitter almond as the main rootstock in Lebanon, suited to calcareous soils but sensitive to root rot and Verticillium wilt, and notes that the almond-peach hybrid GF 677 tolerates high salinity.

Almond witches' broom spreads through uncertified seedlings and through grafting from infected trees, so the booklet calls for certified trees and no grafting from untested ones. It advises one pollinizer for every 20 to 25 trees, with beehives placed from the start of bloom, and open-center training. Plan rows, headlands and trunk height for shakers and catching frames before planting.

Almond witches' broom, first found in a 1999 survey in the Bekaa, was detected on almond, peach and nectarine in 16 of 26 districts in 2009 and 2010, EPPO reported in 2013; in 2015, EPPO named the leafhopper Asymmetrasca decedens as a vector. It has been a regulated pest in Lebanon since 2011, and the booklet advises uprooting infected trees before it spreads. In late summer 2020, Xylella fastidiosa was found in almond trees in one district outside the Bekaa; EPPO lists it as present in Lebanon with a restricted distribution.

Almond tolerates drought, the booklet notes, but yields better where rainfall exceeds 500 mm. It advises watering before bloom in January if no rain falls and after fruit set, and avoiding water stress after harvest, when roots store reserves. In LARI's 2002 to 2003 survey, farming practices were limited to commercial plantations: furrow irrigation, fertilization, pruning and pest treatments.

The booklet's pest monitoring uses boxes of last season's infested fruit from late February to catch the first seed wasps, pheromone traps for the peach twig borer from bloom, and checks for Capnodis adults from April to September. For care work, the ID DAVID ECOFEED spreads solid manure, the ID DAVID LAT&GO string mower controls weeds without herbicides, the Mañez Lozano Narrow Twister S6 sprays tall, dense canopies and the ID DAVID V1 disc pruner makes vertical and horizontal cuts.

In Lebanon, almonds are eaten whole and green in March, as fresh mature kernels in May and June and as dried kernels, LARI researchers noted in 2007; the 2008 booklet says green almonds are picked by hand only. For dry almonds, it describes shaking branches with rubber-covered sticks, hand picking for young trees and small areas, and a mechanical shaker with a catcher for large ones. In orchards planted for machines on suitable ground, mechanized harvesting can bring the crop in on time, with less risk of nuts deteriorating while they wait.

The booklet dates ripening from the second week of August (Awja and Halwani, Central Bekaa) to the third week of September (Texas), and the mechanical harvest of dry almonds to September and October. Beirut averages 0.4 mm in August and 2.3 mm in September (1981 to 1990, via WMO); Zahle's average rainfall to 20 October is 11 mm (Lebanese Meteorological Department). No Lebanese source describes ground drying, so this guide shows it, with the Flory CP87 Conditioner, only as an option for August and early September harvests in the inland Bekaa.

Flory harvesting machinery is available in Lebanon through OVE Europe for both systems. On the ground, the VR700 Shaker, 34 Series Sweeper, CP87 Conditioner and 860 Harvester (or the smaller 490) work with the 1500 Conveyor Cart and ST14 Shuttle. Off the ground, the Flory COE C7 Shaker and L2 Receiver catch the almonds in a frame around the trunk, the Flory COE B8 Cart and VS25 Shuttle carry them, and the 4840 Field Elevator loads trailers in both systems.

The 2008 booklet advises drying almonds after harvest to prevent the molds that produce aflatoxins, with hot air in dryers, until an almond breaks without bending, and storing them in cooled rooms. In this workflow, almonds dried on the orchard floor arrive with dry hulls and are dried further only if needed, while frame-caught almonds are hulled first and then dried in the shell.

A 2023 study of 11 almond samples of unstated origin, bought across Lebanon in January 2020, found aflatoxin B1 in all of them, at 0.06 to 0.90 µg/kg, none above the EU limit applied. Lebanon's Resolution 322/1 of 2004 sets aflatoxin limits for imported food. For exports to the EU, Regulation (EU) 2023/915 allows 8.0 µg/kg of aflatoxin B1 and 10.0 µg/kg in total in almonds for consumers, and 12.0 and 15.0 µg/kg in almonds to be sorted first.

Lebanon imported 4,119.4 t of shelled almonds in 2024, 93.3% of them by weight from the United States, and exported 46.1 t in shell, mainly to Gulf countries, and 38.4 t shelled (UN Comtrade via WITS); a 2007 paper by LARI researchers notes that kernel imports are needed to cover national needs. Jessee, whose processing lines OVE Europe supplies, builds hulling, drying, in-shell cleaning and sizing, and shelling systems; its Airlegs nut cleaner was developed for the almond industry.

For general information only. Information may become outdated and does not replace site-specific professional advice. Consult a qualified agronomist and confirm equipment suitability with OVE before acting.