In the presence of the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Akram Chehayeb, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Gebran Bassil, the Director General of the OIV, Mr Jean-Marie Aurand, recalled the actions taken recently for development of the wine sector. He also gave presentations during technical sessions on recent trends in the world wine market.

Structured around four working sessions dedicated to the markets, environment, standardisation and development of trade, speakers from the OIV and Lebanon gave presentations on international and local aspects of vitivinicultural production.

Accompanied by the Director General for Agriculture, Mr Louis Lahoud, the OIV delegation also visited the wine regions of Batroun, Jezzine, Chouf and Bekaa, as well as meeting producers around round tables on the topics of wine tourism, "boutique" wineries and wines derived from organic agriculture.

At the end of these days, Mr Jean-Marie Aurand stressed the importance for Lebanon of ensuring increased participation of experts in the work of the OIV, of promoting native grape varieties by adding them to the OIV official list and of registering geographical indications for wines.

During a meeting with the Minister and his departments, and representatives from the Ministry of Economy, the Standards Institute, the Agricultural Research Organisation, the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute and the Israel Wine Grape Growers Board, Mr Aurand spoke about how the OIV operates and gave a presentation on the key features of the global vitiviniculture industry. At the request of the professional attendees, he also spoke about various aspects associated with consumption and communication in relation to alcoholic drinks, while Mr Yann Juban summarised the progress of the ongoing reforms to the structure of the European wine market.

Mr Shamir spoke about the development of the Israeli vitiviniculture sector, which is currently adapting its standards on the basis of the OIV standards, and the sector's interest in building new markets.

These meetings were complemented by visits to various production sites, including table grape production facilities (Tali Grapes in Lachish) and wineries, such as those at Barkan, Castel, Carmel, Ramot Naftali and Adar.

At the request of the Israeli Minister, a wine presentation will be held at the OIV headquarters on 24 November 2014 to explore the special features of Israeli production.