PINE NUTS PRODUCTION IN THE SHOUF BIOSPHERE RESERVE: QUALITY AND MARKET PERSPECTIVES

Nowadays, pine nuts are grown and consumed in many countries around the world. The growing popularity of Mediterranean food across Europe, especially related to the multiple health benefits, is driving demand for pine nuts. In Europe pine nuts are consumed raw or roasted, or used as an ingredient in breads, candies, cookies, cakes, sauces, meat, fish and vegetable dishes. In this paper, we focus on the production of pine nuts in the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, a protected area in Lebanon, in order to understand future market perspectives, also according quality characteristics. The paper took place within the three-year long project “STONE - restauro e valorizzazione di Sistemi agricoli Tradizionali per lo sviluppO economico e la coNservazione ambiEntale della Riserva dello Shouf”, implemented by Istituto Oikos and funded by the Italian Agency for Develop-ment Cooperation. Within a perspective of local development based overall valorisation of Leba-nese pine nuts, this paper has focused in particular on the following specific ob-jectives: i) to investigate the European market and the value chain of the select-ed commodity; ii) to understand main requirements and standards for entering the EU market; iii) to provide strength and weaknesses of the value chain, as well as opportunities and threats in the country.