Latakia-SANA
The Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Eng. Mohamed Hassan Qatana, affirmed the continuation of government support for the agricultural sector and its keenness to provide the needs of farmers, and that citrus marketing is a priority and coordination with all concerned ministries is being done to open new foreign markets and provide all possible facilities.
During a meeting in Latakia governorate building today with a number of stakeholders in the agricultural sector and its marketing in the governorates of Lattakia and Tartous, Minister Qatna drew attention to the efforts made in the field of citrus marketing, including what is currently being done to coordinate with the concerned authorities in Iraq to facilitate procedures for marketing the material and reduce transportation fees, indicating that a commercial delegation from Iraq will visit Syria soon to discuss the issue of concluding agreements in the field of citrus marketing.
Minister Qatana stressed that providing diesel fuel to all agricultural sectors is a priority in the work, especially securing it during the months of November and December of each year, indicating that the ministry, within its agricultural development plan, specifically set strategic crops in each governorate, which applies to Lattakia with citrus and tobacco.
He explained that the ministry had contracted with one of the private sector laboratories to supply phosphate fertilizer, where the ministry has so far delivered about 35,000 tons, and the requirements of citrus farmers will be provided with the supply of additional quantities.
For his part, Lattakia Governor Ibrahim Khader Al-Salem indicated the governorate’s follow-up to provide diesel fuel to all sectors, especially to support the agricultural sector, marketing the citrus season according to the quantities available to it, and coordinating with the relevant ministries to open foreign markets for the product, especially in Iraq.
The meeting presented a set of difficulties facing the reality of marketing, especially those related to transportation, its procedures, the provision of fuel and fertilizer for agricultural production, and proposals to overcome them. The Director of Agriculture, Engineer Basem Doba, pointed out that the decrease in the governorate’s allocations of diesel had a negative impact on providing the needs of the agricultural sector in the governorate, with priorities for distributing the material for transportation. Hospitals and bakeries.
Hikmat Sakr, head of the Farmers’ Union branch in Latakia, considered that all citrus fruits are “juicy” and the presence of a juice factory contributes to harvesting the crop and alleviating farmers’ burdens.
For his part, the director of the branch of the Syrian Trade Establishment, Engineer Sami Halil, indicated that this week the branch began marketing the material directly from the farmers and put it in the institution’s halls in a number of governorates, indicating that so far, about 90 tons have been marketed to the governorate of Damascus, and that the Corporation saves the farmers the transportation costs and the price of The packaging and the commisson.
After the meeting, Minister Qatna and Governor of Lattakia were briefed on the sorting and packaging center of the branch of the Syrian Trade Corporation and the procedures followed by the branch for marketing the citrus, in addition to another center belonging to the private sector.
The plant for the production of plastic containers was also inspected within the sorting and packaging center of the branch of the Syrian Trading Corporation and the nurseries of the Green House Company in the southern sand, which produces plant varieties within tubes.
