A Bumper Harvest Predicted in Jordan

Olive grow­ers in Jordan are on track to increase olive oil pro­duc­tion by 20 to 25 per­cent in the 2022/23 crop year com­pared to the pre­vi­ous sea­son.

According to the gov­ern­ment, over­all olive oil yields should reach 30,000 tons. Minister of Agriculture Khaled Al-Hneifat said these fig­ures mean pro­duc­tion would be suf­fi­cient to cover inter­nal con­sump­tion and some exports.

International Olive Council data show that Jordan pro­duced 22,000 tons of olive oil in the pre­vi­ous crop year. The Middle Eastern king­dom has yielded an aver­age of 24,600 tons over the past five sea­sons.

In the last 20 years, Jordan has pro­duced more than 30,000 tons of olive oil just twice, yield­ing 37,000 tons in the 2006/07 crop year and 34,500 tons in 2019/20. Annual aver­age national olive oil con­sump­tion sits at about 21,000 tons.

Despite the expec­ta­tions of a boun­ti­ful har­vest, olive farm­ers faced plenty of chal­lenges through­out the year. High tem­per­a­tures and sig­nif­i­cant rain at a del­i­cate moment allowed insects and fun­gus to breed in the olive groves over the sum­mer.

According to Mahmoud Oran, the Jordan Farmers Union’s (JFU) pres­i­dent, these chal­lenges were com­pounded by low rain­fall last win­ter, an unex­pected March frost that dam­aged some trees dur­ing flow­er­ing and a 10-day heat­wave at the end of August.

According to Oran, the August heat­wave delayed the plant­ing of other crops and impacted pro­duc­tiv­ity in rain­fed olive groves.

“Last year, a ripe olive fruit con­tained 17 to 19 per­cent oil,” he told local media. ​“This year, I believe that per­cent­age won’t be higher than 15 per­cent.”

While the new har­vest gets under­way in the coun­try, uncer­tain­ties increase about retail olive oil prices.

Mahmoud Al-Omari, the spokesman of a millers’ and pro­duc­ers’ union, told local media that the price of a 16-liter tin of olive oil might rise to 85 Jordanian dinars (JOD) (€121), mean­ing one liter of olive oil would be about JOD 5.30 (€7.60).

On a local tele­vi­sion pro­gram, Al-Hneifat said there was a need for con­tin­ued gov­ern­ment over­sight at mills to ensure pro­duc­ers com­plied with qual­ity stan­dards. The min­istry exe­cutes peri­odic checks at mills with the sup­port of a spe­cial com­mit­tee formed by experts in the olive sec­tor.

“We care about the olive har­vest because it mat­ters to every Jordanian house­hold around the king­dom,” Al-Hneifat said.

• The Jordan Times
• Jordan News