Italian Cooperation - Gerusalemme

NEWSLETTER n.8Agriculture:Quality Olive OilThe Project of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Developmentof Quality Olive Oil aims at strengthening food security for theagronomists and rural people of the West Bank. The implementationof the Initiative was assigned to the Italian Istituto Agronomico perl’Oltremare (IAO) of Florence, for more than one century executingbody of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of implementingscientific agro-social programs. This project, entailing a contributionby the Italian Government of €1.180.000, was strongly supportedby the Palestinian National Authority for the development and recoveryof olive culture as a mean of economic sustenance for thousandsof families in the Palestinian Territories. The Palestinian Ministry ofAgriculture is counterpart in the Project.In West Bank there are few small enterprises committed in marketingstudies for the production of quality olive oil and for the commercializationof the product in glass bottles of half and ¾ of a liter. ThePalestinian Ministry of Agriculture conducted a census counting 248oil mills in West Bank, the majority of which holding Italian machineries,but despite this the final product address a low cost and qualitymarket.The Italian Project for the production of quality olive oil benefitsaround 400 olive growers and 30 managers of olive millswhere technical training is being conducted to enhance the ol-Since the ancient times, as deeply narrated in the Holy books of theChristian, Muslim and Jewish religions, the olive tree has been ofrelevant importance in all the Middle East at the extent of becomingthe symbol of wisdom and peace.In West Bank currently twelve million olive trees have been countedon 75.000 hectares of rural land. Nonetheless in fewer than threeyears the Wall being built by the Israeli Government around and withinthe Palestinian Territories reduced the production capacities of thesoils and thousands of olive trees have been uprooted or burned.In this situation, due also to the ongoing conflict in the Region, theproduction is in its minimum levels. Currently Palestinian soils producetwo tons of olives per hectare, whereas in difficult years a 30%productivity reduction has been registered. This dramatic drop isspecifically due to the lack of infrastructures and research structures,in addition to land confiscation and trees uprooting.The Olive Culture occupies a major place within the Palestinian agriculturalsector and notwithstanding it weighs only 10% on the GrossDomestic Product (GDP), despite the 60% of the entire Palestinianpeople living in rural areas. Only the 25% of olives harvested areconverted in olive oil. This is a product with peculiar characteristicswith a potential currently little exploited. The internal consumptionis 50% of the entire production, whereas a 30% is being given toIsrael that commercializes the product with Israeli trademark. Only a20% is being commercialized in the Gulf Countries with a low qualityplastic packaging.Pag. 14