About 10 tons of chestnuts .. Estimates of production in Homs

Hummus-Sana

Dahr al-Qusayr, in the western countryside of Homs, is famous for its chestnut cultivation, where production for this season is estimated at about ten tons, with a significant increase over previous years.

Engineer Suleiman Ali, head of the Dahr al-Qusayr al-Haraji site, stated in a statement to the SANA Economic Bulletin that the area of ​​the site is about 1,500 hectares, 60 km west of the city of Homs, and it consists of two parts, “natural forestry and industrial afforestation,” and its cultivation began with various forest trees from 1970 to 1984, the most important of which is Chestnuts, whose trees number 400 thousand trees, most of them are fruitful, indicating that production estimates reach about 10 tons of fruits, with a marked increase over previous years, and the process of collecting fruits over a period of about a month by the private sector through a tender announced annually.

Ali stressed that the high heat wave led to a reduction in the size of the fruit and a decrease in its quality, as chestnut trees in Dahr al-Qusayr grow naturally without interference, except for the work of caring for and preserving trees and patching areas affected by weather conditions or human encroachments, pointing to the importance of efforts made by workers and cadres throughout the period. Summer to maintain this site to prevent attacks and prevent fires.

For his part, Nazih Saeed, a supervisor of the chestnut collection process from Rabah village, explained that the season this year is good, but its size is small due to the intensity of pregnancy and the intensity of heat that passed during the fruiting period.

The Dahr al-Qusayr site in the western countryside of Homs is one of the largest and most important sites for growing chestnut trees at the country level, which is characterized by its high economic value, such as the hardness of its wood, which is used in the fields of construction, paper and ships industries, in addition to the importance of the chestnut fruit as a foodstuff.

Saba Kharibak

SANA Economic Bulletin