Bassam Ali, the head of the Citrus Export Committee, disclosed that the present production of citrus in Syria estimates 250,000 tonnes, a number that is different from the estimate of the Ministry of Agriculture of 360,000-400,000 tonnes. The discrepancy reveals the difficulties faced by the sector of citrus and the reports of ever-growing obstacles. Ali noticed a shift of producers towards more financially viable crop varieties, with between 50 and 60% of them deciding to stop cultivating citrus fruits to focus on other agriculture ventures, such as the cultivation of tropical crops and grapevines and grape vines, which are much in demanded.

The decrease in the production of citrus of 1.25 million tonnes in 2010 to around 250,000 tons is an impressive decrease, in spite of conflicting estimations from officials of the regime. The Director of Agriculture for Latakia, Bassam Duba, estimated that the amount of production was 840,000 tonnes for Latakia by itself, however other estimates vary between 650,000 and 688,000 tonnes in all the areas under regime control. This indicates there is no consensus regarding what the true production amount is which is causing farmers to be concerned about the challenges of marketing.

This sector is also burdened with the accumulation of surplus produce that causes spoilage as well as loss of money for farmers. In the absence of any intervention from government like setting up juice factories in order to deal with surplus produce, is a frequent problem. In addition, the rise in the cost of agriculture, such as fertilizers, have made it more difficult for farmers to maintain their farms and has led some to remove fruit trees for alternatives or other crop varieties.

Source: EB