Gaza is self-sufficient in olive oil production, says ministry

Olives and olive oils are on display for clients at an olive market, set up in the middle of September to the end of November every year, in Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 09, 2019. Khan Yunis city, in the southern Gaza Strip, hosts the olive market more than 50 years and covering the demand of people who seeks quality olives and olive oils. ( Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency )

For the first time in 25 years, the occupied Gaza Strip has achieved self-sufficiency in the olive oil production, the Palestinian agriculture ministry announced yesterday.

“For the first time since 1994, Gaza has achieved a 100 per cent self-sufficiency in the olive oil production,” the ministry’s undersecretary, Ibrahim Al-Qudra, told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Qudra pointed out that the total quantity of the strip-produced olive fruits this year was amounting to 26,237 tons, adding that it had led to the production of 4,200 tons of olive oil.

“The olive fruits were squeezed in 36 mills across Gaza,” he noted.

In September, the ministry was reported to have banned the importation of olive oil into Gaza, in an attempt to “support the local production.”

According to the ministry’s official data, the local consumption of the olive oil in Gaza amounts to 4,000 tons a year.

Read: Israeli airstrikes target Gaza Strip

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