Agriculture Minister: Ensuring Promising Foreign Markets for Agricultural Products

TARTOUS, (ST) – The Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Ahmed Qadri stated that the ministry will work early next year on the implementation of water gates in the provinces of Tartous and Lattakia to keep rainwater and contribute to water harvesting.

During a meeting held recently with farmers in Tartous, Mr.Qadri drew attention that the ministry will continue to study watershed in the two provinces to expand this project in the coming years because of its importance in securing the source of drinking water, irrigating crops and extinguishing fires especially in light of the climatic conditions experienced by Syria.

“The ministry is seeking with the Agricultural Bank early next year also to refinance agricultural projects in general, including the greenhouses and production requirements and with the Federation of Chambers of Agriculture to the opening of the Green “corridor” between Syria and Russia to export Syrian agricultural products, which would reflect positively on the economy and farmers, whereas the volume of the needs of the Russian market amounts to 12 billion euro a year.” he explained.

He pointed to the existence of a plan to import cows to the coastal area due to the loss of large numbers of livestock due to the crisis experienced by Syria and another plan to support the institution of poultry and the development of the productivity of its facilities where it was recently signed a contract worth 386 million to develop the facility Poultry in Tartous.

The participants in the meeting focused their interventions on the need to find foreign markets to dispose of the agricultural products, support for protected cultivation and increase the rate of fodder.

For his part, Head of the Syrian Exporters, Mohammed al -Sawah underlined that the union introduced a large number of glass and plastic containers to be distributed to rural women in the province in order to help them market their products processed manually and finding new markets for them to dispose of these products, explaining that he will provide the necessary facilities for rural women to help them market their products to other markets.

The Director of Rural Women’s Development at the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Dr. Ra’ideh Ayoub, said that the exhibition aims to define the role of the Directorate of Rural Development and its activities in the support and development of rural women and her integration into the overall development process and the definition of products of rural women and their specifications in addition to the development of marketing capabilities of women and enhancing their knowledge to be aware of the needs of the consumer, marketing and promotion of her products.

Mr. al -Qadri clarified that his ministry is keen on securing promising foreign markets through the opening of the waterway expected between the Syrian coast and Russia, which will be one of the most prominent foreign markets for the disposal of the Syrian agriculture product in the next phase, adding that activating the export leads to solve many of the material problems of farmers and helps to secure the requirements of production.

A project to create two water gates was adopted in the 2015 plan in Tartous and to be implemented in the next year and will have the effect of increasing irrigation water and provide additional sources of drinking water.

Sharif al – Khatib