Farmers and Officials in Jordan Work to Protect Millennial Olive Trees

Revered as national trea­sures, Jordan’s olive trees are being threat­ened by cli­mate change and defor­esta­tion by devel­op­ers enam­ored by their his­tory and beauty.

Growing demand for unique gar­den orna­ments has led to the trees being uprooted and sold to for­eign­ers world­wide and high-end hotels. Efforts are under­way to save and pro­tect them.

Some of these trees date back 5,000 years, mak­ing them ​“liv­ing mon­u­ments,” said Nehaya Al-Muhaisen, for­mer direc­tor of the olive direc­torate at the Ministry of Agriculture and founder of the Arab Olive Oil Women’s Network.

“Since our ancient trees are sen­si­tive to relo­ca­tion, new gov­ern­ment leg­is­la­tion lim­its trans­porta­tion and removal of them,” she told Olive Oil Times. ​“The Ministry of Interior, together with the police, are work­ing to pre­vent trans­port oper­a­tions, except in very excep­tional cases.”

Jordan’s Ministry of Culture fur­ther aims to add the coun­try’s olive trees to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The hope is that the recog­ni­tion will fur­ther pro­tect them. The gov­ern­ment is also devel­op­ing a plan to engage pub­lic involve­ment through QR codes placed on locally-pro­duced olive oils.

“At first, researchers thought our olive trees were planted dur­ing the Roman empire, around 2,000 years ago, but found that they were cul­ti­vated way before then,” Al-Muhaisen said. ​“They were cul­ti­vated thou­sands of years ago and belong to the legacy of Greater Syria. As a result, they are rare and lucra­tive to sell.”

Greater Syria (Bilad al-Sham), which spans the mod­ern coun­tries of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Palestine, as well as some parts of Turkey, is the birth­place of the olive tree. The ear­li­est vari­ety is known as Mehras, accord­ing to the Mehras Cooperative Society.

Al-Muhaisen noted that the Ministry of Agriculture has spread aware­ness of the eco­nomic value of the old­est trees. As a result, ​“their own­ers have a desire to keep them and ben­e­fit from them.”

“In the past, these ancient trees were just seen as reg­u­lar olive trees, but today, they have a spe­cial pro­tected sta­tus,” she said. ​“They have become the sym­bol of the grand­mother, and you take care of your grand­mother.”

This changed men­tal­ity has prompted pro­duc­ers to repack­age olive oil from mil­len­nial trees into bot­tles with unique designs. ​“Farmers are basi­cally pre­serv­ing our cul­ture in a bot­tle,” Al-Muhaisen said.

“They are begin­ning to take care of these ancient trees, and with greater aware­ness, and have also made a point to dif­fer­en­ti­ate them from reg­u­lar olive oils at trade shows and spe­cial exhi­bi­tions,” she added.

In Jordan, high olive oil prices are attrib­uted to ris­ing pro­duc­tion costs, espe­cially for labor.

On aver­age, olive oil costs approx­i­mately 6 Jordanian dinars (€7.68) per liter, while a bot­tle of olive oil from the coun­try’s his­toric trees can run 15 to 20 Jordanian dinars (€19.19 to €25.58) per liter, accord­ing to Al-Muhaisen.

Despite higher prices, demand is ris­ing. ​“These ancient olive oils have a unique taste,” Al-Muhaisen said. ​“They also rep­re­sent high qual­ity and a rich his­tory. So, the mar­gins are jus­ti­fied. Because of its his­tor­i­cal value, prices could rise to 50 Jordanian dinars (€63.96) per liter.”

Experts pre­dict that Jordanian olive oil pro­duc­tion will rise 30 per­cent this year. ​“We expect about 33,000 tons, with 20 per­cent from ancient trees,” Al-Muhaisen said. ​“The num­ber of fruit­ful olive trees is esti­mated at approx­i­mately 12 mil­lion, of which about 20 per­cent or so are the ancient trees,” she added.

Approximately 200,000 peo­ple are involved in the olive har­vest sea­son. ​“The Jordanian olive sec­tor is one of the most impor­tant agri­cul­tural eco­nomic sec­tors, as it con­tributes effec­tively to the GDP, with an invest­ment vol­ume of more than one bil­lion Jordanian dinars (€1.28 bil­lion),” Al-Muhaisen said. ​“It pro­vides a source of income for more than 80,000 Jordanian rural fam­i­lies.”

“In my wom­en’s net­work, women from olive oil fam­i­lies have started to change the pro­duc­tion and stor­age of spe­cific vari­eties, includ­ing the ancient vari­eties,” she added. ​“The work­shops we orga­nize reflect on the new gen­er­a­tion of olive oil pro­duc­ers.”

Climate change chal­lenges the sec­tor, includ­ing the secu­rity of ancient trees. The heat­waves have increased the use of fer­til­iz­ers and forced farm­ers to resort to sup­ple­men­tary irri­ga­tion to sus­tain pro­duc­tiv­ity.

“Increasing the estab­lish­ment of water har­vest­ing pits capa­ble of absorb­ing rain and flash floods could reduce their dan­ger,” Al-Muhaisen said.

“It is also pos­si­ble to cul­ti­vate dif­fer­ent vari­eties that are more resis­tant to cli­mate change con­di­tions in Jordan,” she added. ​“The Mehras vari­ety, for instance, which falls under the ancient vari­eties, is one of the most resis­tant.”

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• Jordan News