Damascus countryside-SANA
The Director of Agriculture in Damascus Countryside Governorate, Engineer Irfan Ziadeh, estimated that the quantities of olive crop production for this season will reach about 40 thousand tons, and 6500 tons of oil, of which 33 thousand tons are rainfed and about 7000 tons are irrigated.
Ziada said in a statement to SANA reporter that the total areas planted with olives amount to 19,313 hectares, about 50 percent of which are concentrated in the Qatana region, while the total number of trees is about 3,905 thousand trees, their varieties vary between Al-Dan, Al-Jalt, Al-Musabi, Al-Tuffahi, Al-Sourani, Al-Qaisi and Al-Tabali.
The number of mills expected to operate, according to an increase, is 13 mills in the governorate, of which 8 are in the Qatana area, and their work begins on the seventh of next October.
Ziada called on farmers to follow a set of instructions to obtain high-quality oil, including separating leaves, dust and gravel from the fruits, not mixing the fruits that fell on the ground with the fruits picked from the tree, and storing olives at a height of between 30 and 40 centimeters from the ground, and that they are protected from rain. Cold, not delay in picking, transporting fruits in perforated boxes for ventilation, using manual picking or combs, and the time period between picking and squeezing not exceeding 48 hours, and the necessity of using separators and stainless steel oil tanks to store oil.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform had set the date for the olive harvest in Damascus countryside on the fifteenth of next month.
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