Brazilian food shipments helped sustain the Lebanese Armed Forces during the 2024 conflict, as trade between Brazil and Lebanon reached a record high. (Foto: Instagram)
Brazil’s agricultural trade with Lebanon took on added importance during the 2024 escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, when Brazilian food supplies helped support the Lebanese Armed Forces. The countries’ trade also reached a record that year, according to information in Brazilian diplomatic correspondence.
Brazil’s exports to Lebanon have historically consisted mainly of agricultural goods, especially meat. In early 2025, Lebanese Brig. Gen. Georges Khoury, who heads the armed forces’ Directorate of Supply and Food Storage, met with Brazilian diplomats in Beirut to discuss cooperation between the military and Brazilian food companies.
Khoury said an emergency supply operation by Brazilian meatpacker JBS helped prevent the conflict from disrupting food for Lebanese troops. A diplomatic telegram signed by Ambassador Tarcísio Costa and circulated to other Brazilian diplomatic missions in February 2025 said the Lebanese military generally seeks domestic suppliers, but that diversifying its sources—including with Brazilian companies—had helped protect its supply chain.
The telegram said Lebanese poultry farms that had supplied chicken to the armed forces canceled contracts after their facilities were destroyed during the 2024 conflict. Without deliveries from a Brazilian poultry company that was also under contract, it said, food security for military personnel would have been at risk. The correspondence is part of a collection of more than 11,000 Brazilian diplomatic communications obtained by the nonprofit Fiquem Sabendo through Brazil’s Freedom of Information Act.
After the partnership’s success, Khoury asked the Brazilian Embassy in Beirut to help connect the armed forces with Brazilian suppliers of frozen fish and rice, which the telegram described as key components of troops’ diets. The requests were forwarded to the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, known as ApexBrasil.
The broader conflict followed the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023, after which Hezbollah began firing on Israel in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians. In 2024, Israel intensified its operations in Lebanon, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and launching a ground invasion. A ceasefire took effect in November 2024, but the truce was not fully observed by either side. A peace agreement signed by Israel, Lebanon, and the United States in June 2026 called for Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon and Hezbollah’s disarmament; Hezbollah has rejected giving up its weapons, and Israeli attacks have continued, according to the source material.
Trade between Brazil and Lebanon totaled about $455.1 million in 2024, equivalent to approximately 2.5 billion Brazilian reais, a 32.5% increase from $318.3 million in 2023. Brazilian exports accounted for $445 million, while imports from Lebanon totaled $10.2 million. It was the first time bilateral trade exceeded $400 million. Minerva Foods, a São Paulo-based Brazilian company, was estimated to have shipped about $100 million in animal protein to Lebanon as part of Brazil’s exports that year.
