Syrian olive cultivation booming
Syria, Agriculture, 9/30/1999

An international course on advanced technologies applied on olive tree cultivation concluded its deliberations in Damascus on Wednesday. The director of the Syrian olive bureau, Mufeed Kheizran, said in his debate that the olive cultivation process has been improved on the international level as well as in the Mediterranean region.

He added that olive plantation in Syria constitutes an important part of the country's tradition and heritage. The olive tree, which has Syria as its original homeland and planted there for thousands of years, has been closely linked to the life of the Syrians, their norms and traditions. It also constitutes at the present the main source of living for large numbers of citizens.

The number of Syrian families that work in olive cultivation is estimated at 100,000, whose production for the season of 1998 was estimated at a value of 18 billion Syrian pounds.

Olive cultivation occupies the third place in regard to economic importance in Syria, following cereals and cotton.

Kheizran added that according to 1999 figures, areas planted with olive trees were 469,800 hectares, and the total number of olive trees are 63.7 million trees, of which some 38.3 million trees are giving fruits. Some 2 - 2.5 million trees are planted annually.

Most areas cultivated with olive trees are situated in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Idleb, accounting for 56% of the total areas planted with olives in the country, while the provinces of Tartous and Lattakia occupy 20%.

Most olive-cultivated areas in Syria are owned by the private sector. However, olive production is affected by environmental factors pertaining to the soil, climate, rainfall average, fertilizers, ploughing and other related services, therefore olive production differs from one year to another.

In 1990 olive production reached 460,000 tones, while olive oil production for the same year was 83,000 tonnes and table olive production was 80,000 tonnes. In 1998 olive production was 785,000 tonnes, 150,000 tonnes of olive oil and 100,000 tonnes of table oil.

Average annual consumption of olive oil in Syria is 75,000 tonnes, and thereby there is always a surplus for exportation.

The number of pressers in Syria is 786 with an average of just one presser for each 48,000 trees.

There are no factories for refining olive oil in Syria while the remains (al-Berein) are extracted in some 24 firms and the extracted oils are sent to the country's 51 soap factories.

Previous Stories:
  Development of horticulture in Syria   (4/2/1999)
  History of Syrian agriculture   (1/29/1999)
  Olive trees make Syria one of the largest producer of olive oil   (1/4/1999)

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