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Syndicates call for banning olive exports to Israel

By Suzanna Goussous - Oct 14,2015 - Last updated at Oct 14,2015

AMMAN — The Professional Associations Council called on Wednesday for halting the export of olives to Israel due to the recent attacks on Palestinians.

In a statement, the council called for drawing up a national plan to resist any decision that would be listed under “normalising” agricultural and economic relations with Israel, while Palestinian women, children and the elderly are being killed.

The syndicates urged olive and oil traders in the Kingdom to contribute to maintaining the country’s security by not signing any deals with Israel.

According to the statement, any citizen who attempts to export products to Israel will be accused of “normalising” and will face “harsh consequences”.

The associations also urged the government to ban any deals to export olives to Israel.

Fayyad Zyoud, Jordan Olive Products Exporters Association chairman, told The Jordan Times the traders who deal with Israel only represent themselves and do not belong to organisations or official entities.

“Local trade organisations mostly do business with the 1948 Arabs of Palestine and not Israeli settlers,” Zyoud added.

He said that exporting local products is necessary to sustain the economy, adding that there are no direct exports to Israel.

He said that this year, the production of olives amounted to around 220 to 230 tonnes, which is an increase of 25 to 30 per cent from previous years.

According to Zyoud, olive and olive oil are usually exported to Gulf countries.

He said at a press conference earlier on Tuesday that around five to six tonnes are exported to “traditional” markets, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

The chairman added that one of the “barriers” of exporting to the Gulf is the increased production expenses, which prevents their sale at competitive prices.

“We try to export olives to markets we don’t usually deal with, like East Europe, Latin America, Turkey, and Japan to have a variety of options even if the exported amounts were limited,” Zyoud told The Jordan Times.

 

Last March, Jordan was named among the top 10 olive-producing countries with around 20 million trees across the Kingdom.

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