19th olive festival receives 40,000 visitors in two days — organisers

AMMAN — The 19th National Olive Festival received some 40,000 visitors during its first two days, during which olive oil sales reached around JD480,000, organisers said.

Nizar Haddad, the general director of the National Centre for Agricultural Research (NCARE), which organised the festival, said that the value of other agricultural products sold during the first two days reached around JD500,000, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The four-day festival, held at Al Hussein Park in Amman, concluded on Saturday evening. 

The annual festival aims at providing “small farmers and rural women with a platform to sell their olive and other agricultural products”, according to the organisers.

Haddad noted that 450 local producers showcased their agricultural products at the event, which offers free lab testing for the quality of the produce.

Olive trees cover 72 per cent of the agricultural land in Jordan, according to the Department of Statistics (DoS).

Approximately 10.5 million olive trees are planted over 560,000 dunums, most of which are located in the northern region of the Kingdom. Jordan is also ranked 8th internationally in producing olive oil, according to DoS data.

DoS figures also show that the sector’s investment volume amounted to JD1 billion in 2018 and it has created job opportunities for more than 80,000 Jordanian families. 

Deputy chairman of the board of the Amman Industry Chamber, Mousa Saket, said in remarks to Petra on Saturday that annual revenues from olive products in the Kingdom are estimated at JD100 million.