Food Industries, Marketing Problems Discussed

DAMASCUS, (ST) – Head of the Syrian Federation of Chambers of Agriculture, Mohammed Kashto, called for developing industries that depend on agricultural products as raw materials, and this contributes to handle marketing problems that face the increase in agricultural production in addition to generate new jobs and bring added value to encourage directing  investments towards the agricultural sector.
Mr. Kashto underlined the importance of cotton as an essential raw material to the development of industry based on agriculture and the need to give priority to textile industry and converting the largest volume of cotton production to ready-made clothes, pointing out that Syria exports 180 thousand tons per year of ginned cotton.
He explained that the conversion of one ton of fabrics to clothing could create one job opportunity which means that 180 thousand new jobs can be created, stressing the importance of going to maximize the added value of raw cotton as this value could be doubled after spinning to 6 times after being processed as ready fabrics and to 9 times when it becomes a cloth and to 13 times in the case of the finest clothing and most complex.

Mr. Kashto added that the food industry in Syria has significant advantages, especially fruits and vegetables, dairy products and olives in terms of providing the appropriate agricultural product and export markets, adding that the exploitation of these benefits is still limited.
He invited the Syrian Federation of Chambers of Agriculture to promote and develop the dairy industry and its products, to cover domestic demand and reduce the import and localization the manufacturing units to be close of production centers and introducing new technologies to have products of international features and appropriate price.

Mr. Kashto also called for investing the country’s wealth of olive oil and updating patterns of pressing units and refining and reducing production costs to reach a competitive price and the development of marketing techniques in order to promote international trade reputation for Syrian agricultural products.

Sh. Kh.