Lebanon exporters regain access to Saudi market after a five-year hiatus

Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on Lebanese imports following directives from Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah. The decision came in response to requests from Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and is expected to help revive the Lebanese economy and “support a wide range of Lebanese producers and exporters,” according to a statement from the Lebanese side.

The ban — first imposed in 2021 over illicit substances smuggled through legitimate cargo — severed what had once been one of Beirut’s most lucrative export channels. Saudi Arabia was routinely Lebanon’s second- or third-largest export market, absorbing 8-8.5% of total shipments, or USD 243-246 mn between 2017-2019, Byblos Bank Chief Economist Nassib Ghobril tells EnterpriseAM.

Saudi Arabia is also key for Lebanon’s exports because it served as a transit corridor for Lebanese goods bound for the rest of the Gulf. When the ban took hold, exports slowed significantly in 2022 before fundamentally stopping altogether by 2023, Ghobril says. In 2025, with zero Saudi trade, Lebanon’s trade deficit ballooned to nearly USD 17 bn — a devastating figure for an economy already starved for hard currency.

Manufacturers in Lebanon survived the export winter in part by relocating to Oman, the UAE, or Egypt — if they could afford to do so — and re-emerge as local firms shipping into Saudi Arabia under non-Lebanese flags. But even if the people behind these exports were Lebanese, the goods were exports erased from Lebanon’s ledger and that capacity is now being counted under other countries’ data. Smaller exporters and farmers, however, were unable to make that jump due to financial and practical constraints and ultimately absorbed the full blow.

Now, with the export reopening, Lebanese producers are ready to jump back into Saudi-bound exports, Ghobril says. Years of crisis have driven down local production costs (even if they’ve risen in recent weeks due to war-related oil price spikes), while agricultural output, including apples and poultry, has swung into surplus. This resumption is what Ghobril calls a “positive shock” that will help incrementally narrow the country’s trade deficit and pull FX into a banking system still reeling from collapse and struggling to find the money to finance its deposit recovery plans.