The global ambitions of Lebanon’s hard-pressed olive-oil makers

IT BEGAN WITH a case of homesickness. Ibrahim El Kaakour missed his family’s olive groves in Baasir, so four years ago he gave up his engineering career abroad and returned to Lebanon. At the time farming was just a hobby for his family. But Mr Kaakour had a goal, to reinvigorate the groves—and Lebanon’s long-dormant olive-oil industry, which traces its roots all the way back to the Phoenicians. He launched Genco Olive Oil, named after Vito Corleone’s front company in “The Godfather”.Mr Kaakour is not alone. A short drive from Baasir lives Walid Mushantaf, who converted wheat fields into olive groves in 2010. Now the company he co-owns, Bustan El Zeitoun, grows Italian olive varieties (among others). Deeper in Lebanon’s mountains, Rose Bechara Perini’s firm, Darmmess SARL, grows the local variety on her extended family’s land. She calls Deir Mimas, her picturesque home town, the Bordeaux of olive oil.