Syrian government seeks to support the agricultural sector through citrus festival in Latakia

Latakia – North-Press Agency

The various economic sectors are still affected by the 9-year Syrian crisis, among which the agricultural sector is still undergoing attempts to be revived amid these deteriorating conditions.  As the Syrian government and the concerned authorities are working to set up exhibitions and promotional markets, through which they hope to bring back the agricultural products into the markets, especially citrus fruits, where the citrus festival was held in the National Museum in the city of Latakia, north-west of Syria, with the participation of 40 exhibitors and in the presence of international monitoring companies.

The Minister of Agriculture stressed that this festival comes "within the directions of the government to pay attention to the citrus crops, especially after adopting a new marketing system that depends on farm reliability, sorting and packaging centers and companies working with international specifications, in addition to regular maritime transport lines to ensure the transport of these products into the target countries," he said.

Ibrahim Maida, the Director General of the Local Product Support and Development Authority, told North-Press: "The sorting and packaging centers were evaluated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, with hopes for a rapid solution for the external export."

While Munzer Khair Bek, the director of agriculture in Latakia said that citrus fruits are in a good developed situation this year, and constitute a source of income for more than 45 thousand families in the governorate of Latakia, indicating that citrus production of this year was estimated at about 800 thousand tons.