Director of Agricultural Investment:There Is a Need to Export Greater Quantity of Citrus

DAMASCUS, (ST) – Director of the Agricultural Economy and Investment at the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Dr. Majd Ayoub, has underlined that there is an urgent need to export the largest possible quantity of citrus.

“It is expected that the production of the current season to exceed of 1.135 million tons, which is greater than the production of previous years and the largest percentage of production is orange,” he added.

Dr. Ayoub said in a statement that the decision of the Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade regarding stopping the export of some sorts of vegetables does not include citrus or any other type of fruit that the government has not prevented the export of citrus this year.

“During a qualitative meeting held recently to study the reality of production and marketing of citrus for the season 2013-2014 in the presence of the relevant authorities, it was agreed that General Establishment of Storage, and Marketing to sale the largest possible amount of production, including at least 150 thousand tons,” Dr. Ayoub said. 

“The Central Association for Marketing Agricultural Products affiliated to the General Federation of Peasants is working on marketing a part of the production. The representative of Supporting Exports Association suggested to back the process of exporting citrus among the Syrian products,” he clarified.

“The cultivation of citrus in Syria has become one of the important economic crops whereas a large number of residents of the Syrian coast and a number of households in some other governorates work as farmers in agriculture and its harvest in addition to the benefit of the owners of means of transport , traders, exporters and owners of manufacturing containers.” Dr. Ayoub noted.

“The number of trees planted in Syria is about 14 million trees , including 8 million trees of orange and 2.5 million trees of lemon and the rest of different citrus, ” Ayoub said according to statistics provided to the Ministry of Agriculture for the year 2011.

Syria is no.3 citrus producer in the Arab world after Morocco and Egypt and the seventeenth in the world for the production of citrus fruit which is characterized by cleanly from diseases and insects and the remaining impact of pesticides and toxic substances after the application of integrated pest management style and the adoption of a biological control method.

Sharif al Khatib