Enab Baladi – Shaaban Shamieh
For years, citrus farmers on Syria’s coast have suffered from what they describe as a policy of “dropping their seasons”, a pattern of decisions by successive governments that they see as “unfair”, including export policies and broad approvals to import Lebanese bananas into local markets right at the peak of the citrus season, in addition to exploitation and fraud by traders in central wholesale markets known as “al-hal” markets.
These policies have harmed the reality of citrus farming and its economic viability, pushing many peasants and farmers to abandon it and shift toward tropical crops, according to testimonies gathered by Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Latakia and Tartus provinces.
The farmer’s work cycle, which begins in April and continues until November when the fruit is harvested, also consumes whatever savings he has managed to put aside over the year, and that is only if the season survives weather conditions that have more than once. destroyed crops or dried out the trees.
Today, citrus farmers hope that in the first real season after the new government took power, it will “do them justice” and take effective steps to revive this key crop.
The Director of the Citrus Office at the Ministry of Agriculture, Hatem Majar, told Enab Baladi that preliminary production estimates for this season are about 590 thousand tons, distributed between Latakia and Tartus provinces, in addition to small quantities that do not exceed 1 percent in the rest of the provinces, as home garden plantings.
Citrus season in Latakia
According to statistical surveys for the current season, the area planted with citrus in Latakia is estimated at 31 thousand hectares, which accounts for 77 percent of domestic citrus cultivation. The total number of trees is 10.2 million, providing livelihoods for around 44 thousand families, according to Latakia’s Director of Agriculture, Abd al-Fattah al-Sammar, who spoke to Enab Baladi.
Al-Sammar added that expected production this season in Latakia is close to 440 thousand tons, according to the preliminary estimates.
He said prices at the “al-hal” wholesale market this season range between 3,000 and 13,000 Syrian pounds per kilo, depending on variety, type, and quality, while the dollar is trading at 11,900 Syrian pounds. He pointed out that based on initial monitoring of market conditions, there are no marketing problems so far this season, describing prices as “good”, especially since volumes are low compared with previous seasons.
To avoid obstacles that may hinder citrus marketing this season, al-Sammar stressed the importance of closely following the marketing process from the beginning of the season and focusing on it particularly during peak production in November, December, and January, to prevent marketing bottlenecks. He said this means raising difficulties and problems to the competent authorities to work on resolving them, including by forming a marketing committee at the governorate level.
What about the citrus season in Tartus?
Citrus trees are among the most important fruit trees in Tartus province and rank second after olive trees. The area planted with citrus is about 9,200 hectares, and the number of fruit-bearing trees exceeds 3.2 million, according to the Director of Agriculture in Tartus, Hassan Hamdan Hamadeh, who spoke to Enab Baladi.
Hamadeh added that preliminary production estimates for this season are 149,800 tons of various citrus varieties, an increase of about 2,000 tons compared with last year.
He said the Tartus Agriculture Directorate relies on biological control methods to combat pests. Natural enemies are bred at the Citrus Research Center and released into citrus orchards, avoiding chemical control and resulting in fully organic fruit with no pesticide residues.
Local citrus varieties
Citrus production on Syria’s coast is spread across four main groups:
Sour group (Meyer lemon, Regular lemon)
Sweet orange group (Jaffa, Navel, Valencia, Baladi, blood orange)
Mandarin group (Clementine, Satsuma, hybrids)
Grapefruit group (Regular grapefruit, blood grapefruit, pomelo)
Hatem Majar, Director of the Citrus Office at the Ministry of Agriculture, explained that the harvest period for varieties within these groups runs from September for early varieties until the end of April for late varieties.
Production down 38.2 percent in ten years
Majar noted that when comparing current preliminary production estimates with average production over the past ten years, there is a noticeable 38.2 percent decline. Production has fallen gradually over that period.
This year Syria was hit by a heatwave that coincided with the citrus flowering period, which caused petals to dry out, lowered fruit set rates, and thus reduced production.
The Citrus Office director attributed this decline mainly to economic reasons. Citrus prices had fallen sharply in previous years to levels that no longer covered production costs, which led to some areas being replanted with more profitable crops.
This also affected how farmers tended their fields, particularly in terms of providing the necessary fertilizers, Majar added, which caused a sharp drop in per-tree productivity.
He pointed out that climate factors and drought in the region have also led to a significant deterioration in production, since a large share of orchards are irrigated from dams whose water levels fell last summer because of poor rainfall.
Prices improve by up to 120 percent
Majar considered that the current situation of farmers is favorable in terms of improved prices despite lower production. For the mandarin variety, prices have risen by up to 120 percent compared with last season. This has positively affected many farmers, he said, pointing to a gradual return by growers to taking better care of their orchards, along with high demand for citrus seedlings as shown in field visits.
He also believes that the fall of the former regime and the removal of obstacles that citrus exporters had faced have improved marketing and increased export volumes, especially to Iraqi and Gulf markets.
Efforts to ensure sustainable production
According to Majar, the Ministry of Agriculture is working with other relevant government bodies to prevent citrus imports of all kinds during the production period in order to avoid price drops and maintain price stability.
He added that through the Citrus Office and provincial Agriculture Directorates, the ministry is guiding farmers to plant citrus varieties that suit their areas, in a way that distributes production over the year, which helps stabilize prices and prevents long term marketing gluts.
The Ministry of Agriculture is also helping preserve the quality of Syrian citrus, which is known for being free of pesticide residues thanks to the application of biological control programs, Majar said. The ministry supplies biological control agents at symbolic prices in order to entrench the principle of biological control, which could qualify local citrus to obtain international quality certificates, such as Integrated Crop Management (ICM), if any granting body enters Syria, and thus multiply its marketing value.
Majar stressed that the spread of tropical, semi-tropical, and subtropical crops does not constitute a substitute for citrus on Syria’s coast because they are vulnerable to frost, as seen in the frost damage that hit custard apple and banana fields last winter. He described these crops as “complementary” that help cover local market needs instead of imports and form an additional source of income for farmers.
Strategies and proposals to chart a way out
Maintaining stability in the coastal citrus market requires private sector investors, such as sorting and packing facilities and processing plants, because the private sector is more flexible, and citrus marketing needs speed and flexibility in pricing and shipping, the Citrus Office director told Enab Baladi.
He added that a number of sorting and packing facilities are currently capable of serving the Iraqi market and some Gulf markets, but the overall system needs to improve its efficiency and quality of work in order to compete with citrus produced in neighboring countries.
For his part, Latakia’s Director of Agriculture, Abd al-Fattah al-Sammar, told Enab Baladi about measures that would facilitate citrus marketing and encourage farmers to continue caring for these trees instead of replacing them, including:
Monitoring export operations and coordinating with governments of importing countries to remove obstacles and difficulties, and finding new foreign markets for exports, especially after liberation Making optimal and full use of citrus by establishing a multipurpose factory in Latakia that would extract beta carotene, essential oils, and pectates as priority, since they are more valuable economically than juices and jams, then producing juices, concentrates, and jams as a second priority Reducing the role of middlemen and brokers in marketing by forming marketing cooperatives so that products can be transported directly to consumers, and commission fees in “al-hal” markets can be lowered Organizing and developing the work of “al-hal” markets, particularly with regard to invoicing systems and issuing clear, reliable electronic invoices, and working to set up new markets that meet standard specifications in terms of location, distribution, working mechanisms, and priorities Securing a regular maritime shipping line between Syrian ports and target markets Having the Authority for Supporting Local Production and Exports cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture to promote Syrian citrus through the accreditation program for marketing agricultural products Communicating with businesspeople and companies specialized in the citrus trade, both import and export, in the target countries, inviting them to visit Syria, and opening up to these countries by organizing field tours of accredited orchardsCitrus production on Syria’s coast drops 38.2 percent in ten years Enab Baladi.
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