Field days are valuable opportunities that Debbane Freres seizes to get in touch with growers, offering them exclusive insights into promising seed varieties with distinguished added value (fruit quality, yield, disease resistance …).

In that context, Debbane Freres welcomed on August 23rd over 120 attendees to its 2022 field day, notably key farmers, exporters, and Engineers, in addition to representatives from the MoA as well as a multitude of NGOs.

The event, hosted in the company’s Experimental Station of Ammiq, shed light on over 300 varieties of determinate tomato, open field and greenhouse cucumber, sweet pepper, hot pepper, watermelon, melon, Squash, and other miscellaneous vegetable crops.

After evaluation and data collection based on a professional technical protocol, a selection of 50 promising varieties (exhibiting good performance and fitting local and export market) was made and includes a number of pre-commercial varieties like Open field Cucumber Caliber, Sweet Pepper Calvin (Blocky type), and Sweet Pepper Yara (Half Long); in addition to commercial varieties, notably Tomato Prince, Melon Shaza, Watermelon Cash, and Onion Borneo.

Throughout the event, the technical team accompanied all attendees on a tour of the field, highlighting the varieties grown, and explaining all technical specs sought after in the market.

The results and observations made, in addition to all feedback collected from the attendees, sets the path for future Demo Trials as Debbane Freres looks forward to working on the selected varieties until the succeeding Field Day.

On Monday, August 15, 2022, the company Debbane Agri Algeria organized a technical day on the tomato Tylcv, variety MICHEL F1 in Ain EL Kehil commune, Ain Temouchent State, with the farmer Deif El Allah Abdelkader.

A large number of farmers and resellers were present during this day; about 80 people, among them representatives of the DAS (Directorate of Agricultural Services), the president of the Chamber of Agriculture, the Agricultural Delegate and the Mayor of the commune of Ain El Kehil.

This technical day is an unmissable opportunity for farmers and resellers from different regions of the West of the country; Ain Temouchent, Mostaganem, Sidi Bel Abbes and Chlef to exchange with the commercial and technical teams on their specific needs and discover the new tomato variety Tylcv MICHEL F1.

The opening of the day was announced by the Director General of the company Debbane Agri Algeria, Mr. Charbel Bassil and by the president of the Chamber of Agriculture of Ain El Kehil commune.

The technical day was moderated by the Chief of seed products Salah Yassa, describing the potential, performance and strengths as well as the advantages of the variety MICHEL F1, namely:

-  High production

-  Good fruit set during heat and cold

-  Large size and homogeneous weight fruit

-  Firm, round, bright red fruit

-  Toleration to diseases

-  Good adaptation both during the late season and in the normal season

-  Absence of fruit rot

Follow-up of a constructive debate between the DEAL team, namely: Regional Director Mohamed Bendjafer, Technical Director Mustapha Tebib, Specialist in plant protection products Ahmed Bessas, Technical manager for the western region of the country and farmers Zine El Abidine Kardja.

The company Debbane for Agriculture Algeria affirms once again its willingness to invest in the development of products suitable for local markets and for exportation with the close collaboration of competent authorities of Algeria, namely the Ministry of Agriculture, the DAS and the Chambers of Agriculture.      

At the end of the technical day, a good lunch was served to our guests amidst a friendly atmosphere.

To emphasize its appreciation and gratitude for the actions of the Lebanese Army towards Lebanese citizens, especially in these difficult living conditions, Debbane Freres SAL provided a donation of sowing seeds to the Lebanese Army's Air Assault Regiment.
In addition to these seeds that serve daily cooking and that cover an area of 30 dunam, Debbane Freres SAL will provide technical support in order to ensure the success of the seeds.
 

In cooperation with Mercy organization, Debbane for Modern Agriculture conducted a field inspection of tomato variety SV8320TD in Mosul city. The event included an explanation of the specifications of the item and the service operations by Engineer Ziad Noaman, while the field was prepared and equipped by Engineer Abdullah Qutaiba.

As part of its follow-up of the protected cucumber experiments, the Debbane for Modern Agriculture Team, accompanied by the Monsanto team, conducted field visits to the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, accompanied by engineers Ziad Numan and Ismail Ibrahim.

Debbane Freres manages and supervises several seedless ARRA varieties of table grape projects on multiple sites in Lebanon.

In order to provide technical support, Debbane Freres hosted from the 4th till the 5th of July 2022 two representatives from ARRA (Eng. Ali & Eng. Fayez from Egypt) to share their experience with our TCEs and farmers.

During our visits to the different sites cultivated with ARRA varieties, the farmers were impressed about the new cultural practices given by ARRA team (pruning, bunch stretching, bunch & berry sizing, thinning spray, fertilization & control program …), this info will lead the local farmer to obtain a product with high quality ready to be exported.

In addition, we have visited CEVA packinghouse at Bekaa, CEVA team gave us a full explanation about the packing process: from harvest and crop collection, transformation packaging, storage, conditioning, and delivery, with the ability to manage grapes to the international markets.

Following the success of this visit, ARRA team organized a training at Debbane premises, for ARRA key farmers and technical Engineers, highlighting the main points discussed during the visits about the optimal cultural practices required in the exportation.

On Monday 13 June 2022, Debbane Agri organized a technical day the watermelon variety called Sugar Baby, GRANIT F1 in the Tyre commune, located in Mostaganem province, in the lands of farmer Mohamed Allouche.

Around 50 people of farmers attended the event, including representatives of the DSA (Directorate of Agricultural Services), representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of the province of Mostaganem and the Agricultural Delegate of Tyre.

The technical day was moderated by the Chief of Seed Products Salah YASSA, who described the potential, strengths and benefits of the Granit F1 variety, namely:

-  High production (Average of 3 fruits / plant)

-  Good vegetative coverage

-  Large fruit size (12-15 KG)

-  Round Shape

-  Good exterior color; very dark green close to black

-  Bright red from the inside with a very sweet taste

This description was then followed by a constructive debate on the strong points of our Granit F1 variety, its capacity and its potential for harvest, as well as its behavior with different types of soils of the region (clay, sandy, etc.) 

Our guests had the opportunity to taste the Granit F1 variety, and they appreciated its sweet taste. Debbane Agri also granted a certificate of participation to our privileged client Maher and farmer Mohamed Allouche.

At the end of the technical day, the guests gathered for lunch, which took place in a friendly atmosphere.

DEAL brings back its annual dinner tradition after two years of absence due to COVID-19. 
This year’s annual meeting was held at the Holiday Inn Hotel, and was a success according to the attendees. 
Charbel Bassil, Debbane Agri’s General Director for Algeria’s Agriculture opened the ceremony with a speech addressed to the employees, in which he tackled the company’s new organization and development strategy. Our gratitude also goes to John Fawaz, our CEO, who honored us with his presence during this ceremony, sharing his joy with employees about the different positive changes that the company is currently witnessing. He also reminded all the employees that he trusts each one of them to build the best company with the best team. 
As always, DEAL insisted on honoring its oldest employees, by granting medals to all those who have been working for more than ten work years between 2020 and 2022 (the meeting was cancelled in 2020 and 2021) so it was natural not to forget the other employees.  
Finally, the ceremony ended with a dinner in honor of the employees of DEAL, then a big cake was cut by the employees all gathered under the slogan “Together for a better future” 
 

This year, the seed department at Debbane Agri has introduced the NOURHANE F1 variety in Biskra in the South East of Algeria.

In the past, NOURHANE F1 was intended for open field segments in the western, central, and eastern regions of the country. Its introduction in the region of Biskra in covered fields has produced excellent results, which was reflected by the good behavior of the plant, a fruit size that exceeds 3 kg, the firmness of the fruit (Absence of fruit rot), a growth cycle ranging from 60 to 65 days and its exceptional sweet and fragrant taste.

Given the advantages that NOURHANE F1 has offered in greenhouses; namely the precocity and firmness, we recommend that this variety be planted in the early cycle in December in Biskra.

As part of its strategy to develop its human capital, DEAL has launched new training programs. Entitled "Mastering Sales Techniques," the first training was held in May, targeting the sales team. The main objectives of the training were understanding the main issues pertaining to customer relations, discovering the importance of each stage of a structured meeting, mastering sales meetings, learning how to explore the customer's needs, dealing with clients’ objections, and making offers.

This training was also an opportunity for sharing knowledge, as a means to reinvigorate the sales team towards development and continuous improvement.

These initiatives are sponsored by the company, as they bring out the best in each of its employees.