Homs-Sana
Olive presses in various regions of Homs began receiving the crop from farmers with a noticeable decrease in production compared to the last season.
Eng. Naji Saed, head of the Department of Fruitful Trees in the Homs Agriculture Directorate, attributed the expected decrease in production by 44,000 tons to the bad weather conditions that the crop witnessed during the flowering and contract formation stages, as high heat and drought negatively affected the productivity of trees in general.
Saed pointed out that the cost of pressing a kilogram of olives is currently being studied in the 67 mills at the governorate level, where technical committees will examine the mills, their working mechanism and the extent of their commitment to the necessary procedures during the pressing season.
Regarding the areas planted with olives, the head of the department explained that they amount to more than 124 thousand irrigated dunums and 840 thousand dunums irrigated, with the number of trees being about two million irrigated and nearly 14 million irrigated, and the total number of fruitful trees involved in production is more than 14 million trees.
Ghassan Jbara, director of the Tellil press in the western Homs countryside, pointed out that the harvest has begun to be received from farmers, but the expected production for this season is less than the average, due to the weather conditions.
Farmer Ahmed Doman, who owns about 37 dunams of olives in the village of Umm al-Amad in the Muharram countryside, indicated that there is great suffering for farmers due to the low production this season, in addition to the high costs of servicing the crop, as the price of pressing a ton reaches 135,000 pounds, and the price of an empty tank is 7 thousand pounds and the hourly wage. For picking olives, 1500 Syrian pounds, excluding the fees for transporting workers back and forth, and the fees for transporting the crop to the mill, planting and pesticides.
It is noteworthy that the governorate's production of olives last season amounted to about 85,000 tons.
