Lattakia-Sana
The citrus festival at the National Museum in Lattakia constituted an important economic and commercial demonstration as a platform to introduce Syrian citrus fruits that have distinct characteristics.
The festival, which kicked off today, included a display of all kinds of citrus fruits and their varieties, with the aim of promoting this product and introducing it for its internal and external marketing, in addition to other activities including a carnival in the streets of the city.
The festival will be accompanied by a scientific symposium that will start tomorrow in Dar Al-Assad for Culture, with the participation of about 25 lecturers from universities and the Export Support Authority and from marketing agencies, and its outputs will have positive effects if applied to the reality of citrus fruits, whether in terms of production, agriculture, or marketing and export.
The Director General of the Support and Development of Local Production and Exports at the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Ibrahim Maidah, revealed that during the next few days there will be a discussion of a new mechanism presented by the authority to support the production and marketing of citrus fruits, which will be positively reflected on farms and export companies.
The significance of the festival lies, as explained by the director of Latakia Agriculture, Munther Khairbak, in the display for external marketing, especially after the government adopted a dependency policy to market the surplus of citrus production, noting that this year citrus is in a good development and constitutes a major source of income for more than 45 thousand families in the province where Latakia production for this year is estimated at 800 thousand tons.
The engineer, Mais Shehadeh, head of the Agricultural Economics Department in the Directorate of Agriculture, said that the number of farms in the governorate that entered in the reliability are 138 farms and 4 sorting and packaging centers, and their names will be raised to obtain the accreditation certificate.
Regarding the participation of the Italian “Global Gap” company, which grants organic agriculture certificates, the natural product between the inspector in the company, Engineer Sami Wahiba, that the aim of the participation is to introduce farmers and sorting and packaging centers to the company that was licensed in Syria and to define its certificates that grant it, which is a transit pass for the Syrian product to the global Describing the Syrian product as one of the best products where Syrian citrus fruits have international specifications and what is lacking is the correct management of the harvesting, packaging and packaging process, as well as the certificate granted by the company as a guarantee to the importer of the cleanliness of the product and its achievement To universal required.
Wahiba pointed out that there are several farms in Syria that have been granted the company's certificate, which proves that it meets the specifications required for organic and exportable production.
The farmer Ismail Ali, the first winner of the productive matches at the governorate level, said that to achieve a good harvest, a group of works should be undertaken, the most important of which are animal or vegetable compost, drip irrigation, good pruning, oil spraying, biological control and tree control.
It is noteworthy that the festival was held in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Latakia and Tartous.
The inauguration was attended by Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Eng. Ahmed Al-Qadri, Social Affairs and Labor Rimah Qadri, Governor of Latakia Ibrahim Khidr Al-Salem and Secretary of the Baath Party branch in Latakia Dr. Muhammad Shreteh.