(Eqtsad)- Agricultural Engineers in Syria expect this year’s harvest of olive would be the worst, as it could not exceed 700 thousand tons compared to 1.6 million tons last year.
Engineers attributed that to the insect “olive fly”, beside thirst on July and August and negligence of trees due to clashed in the countryside of different areas and abandoning wide area of olive fields rearing of sniping and mines, not to forget shelling and bombing by regime ‘s forces which affected olive fields.
Olive harvest time came a month earlier than usual, as it used to start in the end of October and ends in the beginning of December. But because olives started to get blackish and brownish early, farmers were forced to start harvesting, and olive mills started operating a month sooner as well.
Abo Jamal, an Agricultural Engineer, specialist in olive oil manufacturing expected the harvest this year to reach to (700-800) thousand tons at most, (200-300) thousand would go to domestic use, and the rest go to olive mills.
The Engineer added in his talk to Eqtsad that the harvest in the middle region would not exceed 80,000 tons compared to 190,000 tons last year. The majority of the amount exported to Arabic countries and other European countries host Syrian refugees.
In regard to the price of olive oil, the Agricultural Engineer reported that prices are SYP 22,000 for a 16-litre can for the premium, while last year in was SYP.12,000.
Abo Mohammed 51 year, owns an olive field of 150 acres and 3000 trees, said that he expected weak harvest this year, and he did not expect to get more than 40 cans of olive oil, while last year his field produced 200 cans.
The farmer explained that olive trees’ harvest differ from year to another, as on year they give high harvest but the next year the harvest drops which is natural phenomena.
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