Jordan Launches Campaign to Support Olive Sector

Summary

The Ministry of Agriculture in Jordan is inten­si­fy­ing ini­tia­tives to mod­ern­ize the coun­try’s olive oil sec­tor through a national cam­paign focus­ing on qual­ity, sus­tain­abil­ity, and resilience, led by the Plant Protection and Phytosanitary Directorate. The project includes deploy­ing traps, pes­ti­cides, and train­ing to com­bat pests, with the goal of ensur­ing high-qual­ity, pes­ti­cide-free olive oil that aligns with inter­na­tional stan­dards and pre­serves Jordan’s cul­tural and eco­nomic her­itage.

The Ministry of Agriculture in Jordan has inten­si­fied its ini­tia­tives to sup­port and mod­ern­ize the country’s olive oil sec­tor through a ​“national cam­paign for the inte­grated man­age­ment of olive trees.”

The project encom­passes a com­pre­hen­sive series of inte­grated pro­grams focused on qual­ity, sus­tain­abil­ity, and resilience.

“Our goal is to obtain a high-qual­ity agri­cul­tural prod­uct that is com­pletely free from pes­ti­cide residues,” Maram Al Masadeh told Olive Oil Times.

Al Masadeh is the direc­tor of the Plant Protection and Phytosanitary Directorate (NPPO Jordan) and Jordan’s offi­cial liai­son to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).

“We are achiev­ing this through strate­gic mon­i­tor­ing, advanced pest con­trol tech­niques, and by pro­mot­ing good agri­cul­tural prac­tices across the coun­try,” she added.

The project was launched with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of sev­eral stake­hold­ers, includ­ing the Jordan Agricultural Engineers Association, the General Union of Jordanian Farmers, the Jordanian Olive Products Exporters Association and the General Syndicate of Jordanian Olive Oil Mill Owners and Olive Producers.

The cam­paign began with a project aimed at tack­ling the most press­ing threats to Jordan’s olive sec­tor; the olive fruit fly has long com­pro­mised both yields and oil qual­ity in Jordan and around the olive oil world.

The ministry’s pro­gram includes the deploy­ment of tens of thou­sands of sticky and food traps, the dis­tri­b­u­tion of low-residue pes­ti­cides, and the train­ing of hun­dreds of farm­ers and engi­neers in inte­grated pest man­age­ment.

Through inte­grated pest man­age­ment, olive grow­ers uti­lize traps, nat­ural preda­tors, pheromones, and agro­nomic prac­tices such as early har­vest­ing. Low-residue insec­ti­cides are used only when nec­es­sary.

According to Al Masadeh, the col­ored and food traps, along with chem­i­cal con­trols, cover an esti­mated area of 100,000 dunams (approx­i­mately 10,000 hectares) and ben­e­fit around 5,000 farm­ers.

The pro­gram also fea­tures a series of train­ing courses and field schools. So far, 13 train­ing ses­sions have been com­pleted, with an addi­tional 19 field schools launched to improve farm­ers’ abil­ity to iden­tify and com­bat pests using envi­ron­men­tally sound meth­ods.

“These courses help rein­force our national iden­tity through the olive tree, while ensur­ing that our olive oil remains a com­pet­i­tive and healthy prod­uct,” Al Masadeh said.

The min­istry has already dis­trib­uted 46,000 yel­low sticky traps, 34,000 food traps, five tons of ammo­nia fer­til­izer, 280 kilo­grams of Torula yeast tablets, and 630 kilo­grams of dough yeast. Yeast is used as a pow­er­ful attrac­tant for the olive fruit fly.

In addi­tion, 5,000 liters of spe­cial­ized pes­ti­cides will be used in mass con­trol oper­a­tions.

“These mea­sures are designed to limit the use of chem­i­cals while effec­tively sup­press­ing pest pop­u­la­tions,” Al Masadeh said. ​“We are com­mit­ted to align­ing with inter­na­tional phy­tosan­i­tary stan­dards to ensure Jordanian olive oil remains trusted in global mar­kets.” 

The cam­paign also empha­sizes pub­lic aware­ness. Social media cam­paigns and offi­cial gov­ern­ment web­sites are help­ing dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion directly to farm­ers.

“It’s vital that every­one involved in the olive sec­tor, from grow­ers to proces­sors, under­stands the risks and how to mit­i­gate them,” said Al Masadeh, refer­ring to olive pests and the chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change.

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to con­tinue its efforts through the end of the 2025 har­vest sea­son.

“We launched this cam­paign in phases, start­ing in February, and will carry it through the entire agri­cul­tural sea­son,” Al Masadeh con­firmed.

According to offi­cial min­istry data, nearly 72 per­cent of the country’s fruit-bear­ing agri­cul­tural land is planted with olive trees.

Approximately 11 mil­lion olive trees cover about 60,000 hectares, 60 per­cent of which are rain­fed and 40 per­cent irri­gated.

Each year, the coun­try pro­duces approx­i­mately 165,000 tons of olives, yield­ing more 25,000 met­ric tons of olive oil.

According to International Olive Council data, over the last five har­vests, Jordan has pro­duced between 23,500 and 27,500 tons of olive oil annu­ally.

Domestic olive oil con­sump­tion has remained rel­a­tively sta­ble at around 22,000 tons per year.

Despite these num­bers, Jordan has faced cli­mate-related chal­lenges that con­tinue to test the sector’s resilience.

For exam­ple, the 2024/25 crop year yielded lower-than-expected results, pri­mar­ily due to pro­longed droughts and fluc­tu­at­ing tem­per­a­tures.

The new cam­paign builds on exist­ing projects aimed at strength­en­ing the resilience of the country’s olive crop, includ­ing the Mahras Olive Project, which focuses on pre­serv­ing and enhanc­ing the country’s indige­nous olive vari­eties. 

The project focuses on build­ing a genetic resource bank, improv­ing cul­ti­var resilience to drought and pests, and boost­ing oil qual­ity through tar­geted research.

Al Masadeh empha­sized that the country’s olive sec­tor rep­re­sents more than just a farm­ing sec­tor.

“The olive tree rep­re­sents a great his­tor­i­cal, cul­tural, and eco­nomic her­itage for Jordan,” she said. ​“It is linked to our civ­i­liza­tion for thou­sands of years and remains a pri­mary source of liveli­hood for thou­sands of fam­i­lies.”

“Our new cam­paign reflects the olive tree’s sta­tus as a sym­bol of resilience and good­ness. In every sense, pre­serv­ing the olive tree is pre­serv­ing a part of who we are,” Al Masadeh con­cluded.