Lack in Sugar staple as war destroyed 5 factories

(Reporting by Maher Radhwan; Translation by Yusra Ahmed)

HOMS (Zaman Al Wasl)- Sugar production in Syria fell to less than a fifth this year compared to 4 years ago, 250 thousand tons of sugar beet were processed, it was the lowest in 50 years.

90% of the amount produced was in the city of Hama, where insignificant amounts of Sugar and milas were made. On the other hand, production in 2010 was the highest at 1.5 million tons of sugar beet were processed, making 70 thousand tons of sugar and 42 thousand of milas, and more than 200 thousand tons of residuals used in feeding animals.

Sources reported to Zaman al-Wasl that out of 6 sugar factories in Aleppo, Homs, al-Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, al-Ghab, and Jisr Ash-shughur, 5 were destroyed except al-Ghab one, which carried on working and processed the whole amount of sugar beets available from al-ghab.

An agricultural engineer explains the dramatic drop of sugar production, the third strategic harvest in Syria, by displacing farmers from their lands and the huge increase in diesel’s prices, besides the low level of security. For example, the city of Homs, used to be the main producer of sugar in Syria, now no farmer able to culture anything.

Most Syrians remember the tragic incidence in the beginning of Syrian revolution, when regime’s forces turned Jisr Ash-shughur’s sugar factory into detention and torturing centre for demonstrators.