With the start of the olive harvest season in Daraa Governorate, presses are operating continuously to receive the crop, press it, and extract its oil, amidst challenges related to rising production, pressing, and transportation costs, as well as difficulties in marketing olives and olive oil.
Mohammed Al-Hariri, owner of one of the presses, explained to SANA on Monday that the pressing process begins with receiving the harvest, sorting it, and registering farmers' data, followed by unloading the fruits onto an automated production line where leaves and impurities are separated, and the fruits are washed with water to remove dust.
He added that the fruits then move to the crusher to be ground into a homogeneous paste, followed by mixers in the "fermentation stage" for a period ranging between one and one and a half hours per batch, at a controlled temperature that helps collect oil droplets, before being transferred to the horizontal separator "decanter" to separate liquids from solids, and then to the vertical separator to separate the oil from the water resulting from pressing, making it ready for packaging.
Al-Hariri pointed out that the press relies on a closed centrifugal system, which ensures cleanliness in production stages and speed of work, contributing to efficient oil extraction while maintaining its quality and specifications. He noted that the oil extraction rate from fruits is lower at the beginning of the season due to incomplete ripeness, emphasizing that oil extracted from green fruits is of high quality, and calling on farmers to transport their harvests in plastic boxes instead of sacks to preserve fruit integrity and quality.
For his part, farmer Yassin Al-Hariri, from the village of Malihat Al-Atash, called for providing work supplies and opening markets to market olives and their oil, noting that current prices do not match production costs, which affects harvest operations despite the abundant production this season.
Al-Hariri highlighted that farmers face rising costs for harvesting, packaging, pressing, and transportation, in addition to damages inflicted on many farms in previous years due to tree neglect, lack of care, and illegal logging and uprooting during the rule of the former regime. He noted that Daraa was one of the leading olive-producing governorates before the Syrian revolution, containing more than six million trees.
For his part, farmer Alaa Al-Hariri pointed out the burdens borne by farmers during the harvest season, amid scarcity of resources and capabilities, and rising costs of pesticides and medicines needed to combat diseases and pests affecting trees.
There are currently 37 olive presses operating in Daraa Governorate, while 11 presses have stopped working due to practices of the former regime. The governorate's olive production is expected to reach about 35,000 tons this year.
Earlier, the Executive Office of the Daraa Governorate Council, chaired by Governor Anwar Taha Al-Zoubi, announced on the 12th of last month the opening of the pressing season on the 15th, and set the fees for pressing one kilogram of olive oil, according to the mechanism of transporting the harvest from the field to the press.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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