Mark Sadaka

General manager of CIDRA LEBANON

What is your post-covid-19 strategy?

Cidra is a micro-craft cidery in Kfour, Keserwan that produces apple cider and sparkling apple juice. Our products are all natural, gluten-free, vegan, and with no added sugars. The company’s main goal is to support local Lebanese apple farmers by purchasing their non-marketable apples and providing them with valuable expertise to take care of their apple orchards.

Lebanon has been going through a series of crises. With a dying economy, hyperinflation, and the Lebanese pound losing more than 80 percent of its value on the parallel market within 10 months, Covid-19 is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Lebanese people’s worries. However, being the resilient people that we are, we are determined to get through this once again — as we have always done.

To start off, we are implementing the hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) in order to ensure the highest level of production in line with international standards and deliver a high-quality product to our consumers. In addition, we will be launching advertising and awareness campaigns to highlight and reflect the difficulties faced by apple farmers in Lebanon, and we will be participating in workshops and seminars to discuss these problems and elaborate on how dangerous they are, especially with the increase in wasted apples that we witness every year.

We will be educating the Lebanese people on what cider is and how to help farmers. It is our aim to participate in events such as Vinifest and Beirut International Beer Festival to engage with people and spread our message.

Export is crucial and essential in the near future. We plan to export Cidra to the US, Europe, and the GCC, and hopefully help in making the world recognize the potential of Lebanese apples and Lebanese products. As demand increases, our mission will become a lot easier, and we will be able to support even more farmers affected by the difficult situation in Lebanon.

What changes have you witnessed in consumer behavior?

With everything that has happened since October 2019, we have witnessed a stronger demand for local goods and products. This has motivated local businesses to produce more and sell locally, where the demand for these “newly discovered” products that have been in the market — being unpopular or unrecognized before — has increased. There has always been this belief among the majority of the Lebanese people that local products lack quality and an edge to compete against imported brands.

Scarcity of the US dollar in the market and the high exchange rate fluctuation have caused massive price increases of imported goods. Lebanese consumers have somehow been forced to divert to consumption of local products and to their surprise, the vast majority were shocked by the quality of local produce.

Another issue worth talking about is the rise in environmental awareness, which is mainly portrayed in recycling. The new generation is more eco-conscious and wants to protect the environment. We at Cidra strongly support recycling, and we already ask our customers to return the bottles they consume in order for us to clean and sterilize them through the best processes, and ensure they are as good as new and safe for reuse. By doing so, we are contributing to lowering the amount of glass waste and keeping our environment cleaner.

What trends have been forecast in non-alcoholic and soft drinks?

We have seen a lot of big companies launching a new production line within their companies for non alcoholic products, and we want to be one of the pioneers in this field. We believe there is going to be a greater demand for these products in the future.

Since the start of our journey, we have dedicated a production line for sparkling non-alcoholic apple juice, and we have witnessed a very large demand for this skew.