BEIRUT: If the saying was ever true that Egypt writes, Lebanon publishes, and Iraq reads, it certainly isn’t anymore.

In contrast to the rejuvenation that the publishing industry is experiencing in Europe and North America with books such as Harry Potter and Hillary Clinton’s autobiography, Lebanese publishers say that the industry is going from bad to worse.

All of the publishers here spoke to cited regional conflict and a lack of demand for books as main reasons behind the industry’s decline.

Taref Osman the owner of Dar Al-Ilm lil Malayeen publishing house, said that markets across the Arab world were gradually decreasing. “We are experiencing a decrease in sales across the Arab world by between 5 and 10 per cent each year”, said Osman.

Prior to the civil war, Lebanon was a regional centre of publishing and printing. In the early 1970s there were as many as 700 publishing houses in the country. However, like many sectors in Lebanon conflict and economic decline took their toll and publishers are now facing tougher times.

Riad Rayyes, the owner of Road Rayyes Books, said he was not optimistic for the future of Lebanese publishing: “I don’t have a rosy picture to paint for you about the publishing world in Arab countries”.

Rayyes whose publishing house specializes in novels and history and politics books said that publishing was suffering as a result of censorship. “People accuse me of overemphasizing the censorship part of the industry but I think this is very important.” Rayyes explained that he had many books banned in Arab countries mainly those that dealt with the subjects of religion and politics.”

Rayyes said that another major problem with the sector was that the marketing infrastructure in many Arab countries was insufficient.

“Publishers have failed to establish a proper distribution networks, Rayyes said. He added that with these two problems combined, exporting books from Lebanon could become a difficult procedure. “It’s a complex problem. If you get over the barrier of censorship, then you have to distribute the books, then hastily you have to make your money back”.

Osman, whose publishing house mainly sells dictionaries and school books, was also sceptical about the industry’s prospects.

Osman said a key factor in the industry’s decline was regional conflict. He cited Algeria, Sudan and Iraq as examples of three countries that at one time imported large numbers of schools books, yet were no longer able to as a result of economic decline caused by conflict.

Osman said a major factors in the decline of the market was that with the privatization process that many countries in the Arab world had experienced governments were no longer buying books for schools.

Osman raised the example of the Algerian government which used to buy books to use in state schools. Osman said that book exports to Algeria had gone down by 80 per cent.

He explained that in Algeria the private sector was now responsible for selling school books. But Osman said it was unable to take over effectively from the state, in that there were not enough agents to import books in the same quantities as the government had done.

Maroun B. Nehme, the chief executive of Librarie Orientale was also pessimistic on the current state of the sector.