Damascus-SANA
The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform estimated Syria's production of olives at more than 645,000 tons for this season, compared to more than 850 thousand tons of production last season.
Director of the olive office in the ministry, Eng. Abeer Jawhar, said in a statement to SANA delegate that the area planted with olives is more than 696 thousand hectares, containing about 103 million trees, of which 85 million are fruitful trees, which constitute 12 percent of the total area of planted lands and 65 percent of the total area of fruit trees.
Jawhar indicated that the decrease in production included the governorates of Aleppo, Idlib, Homs, Hama, Tartous, Daraa, Al-Ghab and As-Suwayda, while the initial production estimates increased in the governorates of Lattakia, Damascus Countryside, Raqqa, Quneitra and Hasaka compared to last season.
She attributed the essence of the decline in production in most regions to the phenomenon of “floating” and the rise in temperatures during critical periods, “flowering and knotting,” which negatively affected the percentage of fruit and production.
Johar expected that the amount of oil production would be about 103,000 tons, knowing that the oil yield could decrease if temperatures continued to rise above their normal levels.
Ghassob Abboud
