Agriculture Minister: Preparing a Strategy for Marketing Crops

Damascus, (ST) – Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Ahmed Qadri, discussed with the working team in charge of preparing a strategy of agricultural marketing in cooperation with the ministries concerned and other institutions the proposals that contribute to the development of an integrated marketing strategy at the level of Syria to take into account all aspects of the crop in terms of cultivation, transportation and marketing.

The participants underlined the need to form a working team at the level of the Ministry of Agriculture dealing with the management of the agricultural sector towards marketing including the other concerned institutions and other relevant associations and organizations.

The task of this team is to put a common vision that helps to fill the gaps in the current strategy and helps creating a comprehensive marketing climate of the crops and setting up organized markets at the level of each the governorate linked to an accurate information base for each crop, giving a greater role for the agricultural guidance bureau and marketing programs, developing  new methods of marketing that bridge the gap between the producer and the consumer and giving importance to the crops of organic origin of high economic feasibility.

They also suggested the need to give a role to the private sector in this process in cooperation with the government agencies, giving the agricultural industrialization a greater importance , establishing the markets in places of production and not to allow the exploitation of the producer by giving him the right price.

Eng. Qadri explained that the role of the Ministry of Agriculture in this framework is to provide help, whereas the ministry is not the marketing body but works to help farmers to produce agricultural product with good specifications and creates the ground for setting up markets through the organization of agricultural fairs.

The minister pointed to the importance of gaining expertise of all the parties to prepare an integrated marketing strategy that takes into account the specifications of the Syrian and the type of product through the development of work programs for each phase of production, noting that Syria now has a long history in the production and the marketing of strategic crops.

“We now have a surplus of the most crops, such as citrus fruits, olives and vegetables and this requires creating the suitable groundwork for marketing optimally and seek to get rid of the mechanism to be followed in the marketing process,” the minister added.

Eng. Qadri said that soon we will have a registered and certified organic product, calling for the need to expand in this sort of farming.

Sh. Kh.