Citrus production in Syria has increased compared to last year, reports the Citrus Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform of Syria.
According to the institution, the expected production of citrus this year may exceed 1,135,000 tonnes, nearly 130,000 tonnes more than the production in 2012.
By this date last year, 1 million tonnes had been harvested, 887,000 in the province of Latakia, 205,000 in Tartous and 12,000 in the rest of the cultivated areas in the provinces of Homs, Idlib, Deir Ezzor and Damascus.
Suhail Hamdan, director of the Citrus Bureau, said that more than 50,000 families in Syria depend on the cultivation of citrus as their main source of income.
He added that they were joined by hundreds of thousands of people that help them temporarily in the harvest, transportation and marketing of the fruit.
According to official figures, the number of citrus trees planted in Syria has risen to 14 million trees, 8 million of which are orange trees, 2.5 million limes, and the rest are mandarin and grapefruit, among others.
Source: Press - latina.cu