BEIRUT: Failure to renew the agricultural calendar could cost the sector some $100 million, warned the Farmers Association Thursday, calling for import restrictions to rescue local producers from unfair competition.

“There will be $100 million of losses caused by the abolishment of the calendar that will allow thousands of tons of foreign produce to dump the markets during the different agricultural seasons,” the association’s statement said.

“This would destroy what little is left of the country’s agriculture,” it warned.

Under the agricultural calendar member countries of the Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement are allowed to restrict the import of relevant produce during the time it is in season locally.

“The agricultural calendar, involving the Arab countries, has not been renewed this year. We call for a parliamentary committee to investigate the reasons [for this] and hold those in charge accountable,” the statement said.

The association said Egypt had been striving to phase out the calendar.

“Our exports to Egypt are $67 million while our imports are 14 times bigger at $942 million,” the statement said, calling on the government to use these figures as leverage to encourage the reinstatement of the calendar.

According to the association, the calendar was originally agreed by the Arab League to support the Lebanese agricultural sector after the July 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel.

The association said Lebanese farmers across the country would not be able to withstand competition from cheaper produce imported from neighboring countries.

The Farmers Association has blasted the Agriculture Ministry on many occasions, saying it is regulating the agricultural sector excessively.

The association also opposes the ministry’s efforts to enforce pesticide and agricultural chemical controls. It rejected a recent decision requiring that farmers have prescriptions to buy agricultural chemicals, saying this would inflate costs in an already struggling sector.

Hussein Hajj Hasan, the agriculture minister, argues the regulations he is pushing forward are necessary measures to improve food safety and bring local produce to internationally acceptable levels.

Hajj Hasan was not available for a comment Thursday.

The association said earlier that the country’s winter crops had been hit hard by decreased local demand and slowing exports.

It highlighted that the country’s banana and citrus produce, 90 percent of which is usually exported to Syria and Arab Gulf countries, had been rotting in warehouses.