Agriculture Ministry: Establishing Modern Olive Orchards

(ST) – The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform confirmed the importance of preparing a guidance program for the development of olive cultivation for the current agricultural season.

 The program includes  the establishment of modern orchards based on scientific principles,  spreading of new technologies such as water harvesting ,application of integrated management style in combating insects , harvest automation, optimum utilization of waste olives in order to reduce costs and increase production, and providing  necessary agricultural services especially organic and chemical fertilization based on the results of soil analysis.

The ministry asked to cooperate with the Unions of Peasants in the governorates to implement practical measures after harvest at all phases of the production of olive oil from harvesting to the transport of fruits and delivery to the oil press, then the process of extracting oil according to specifications of the International Council of Olive Oil and access to the process of storage under scientific and healthy conditions.

For its part, the Public Authority for Agricultural Scientific Research confirmed that exports of olive oil ranging between 18,000 and 45,000 tons per year, equivalent to 15 to 25% of the production and this percentage constitutes 40% of the available for export. The volume of exports of olive oil during the year 2011 reached about 16,000 tons of olive oil and 4,000 tons of olive, compared to 18,000 tons of oil in 2010 and 13,000 tons of olive.

The cultivated area with olives reached more than 647,000 hectares according to the latest statistics and over 97 million trees, while the production of olives for this season, up to 900,000 tons, 170,000 tons of table olives, and 20% of the production of the country of the olive is used for the table and the rest for the oil. The development of olive cultivation in Syria has enjoyed great interest in all governorates for the last ten years, which enabled the olive tree to occupy the first rank among the fruit trees to represent more than 55% of the total cultivated area.

Syria is ranked the fourth worldwide and the first among Arab countries in the production of olive. This agriculture contributes  between 5 and 9% of the value of agricultural income. More than 95% of the cultivated area of olive tree depends on rainwater. Aleppo and Idleb are the more productive area in olives in Syria, while the number of families working in this sector is about 400,000 families.

Sh. Al -Khatib