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enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Olive Oil of Oman

By Aldo Pesce
Dec. 2, 2014 08:30 UTC
Summary Summary

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Oman cel­e­brated the suc­cess­ful olive oil pro­duc­tion from the olive trees of Jabal al-Akhdar, thanks to the efforts of local farm­ers and researchers. The story of olive oil in Oman began 20 years ago with the plant­ing of an olive tree that has since flour­ished, despite ini­tial chal­lenges with the cli­mate.

A wild olive tree in the hot, dry land­scape of Oman (Photo: Mike Watson)

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Sultanate of Oman declared the his­tor­i­cal achieve­ment: ​“The olive trees of Jabal al-Akhdar gave gen­er­ously plen­ti­ful of their oil this sea­son.“

This short but mean­ing­ful sen­tence was accom­pa­nied by a short Youtube video show­ing peo­ple wear­ing typ­i­cal Omani dresses while del­i­cately har­vest­ing bright fruits, talk­ing about the virtues of this tree resis­tant to dry­ness.

The story of olive oil in Oman began twenty years ago when Salim Ben Hamid Al Ma’mri, a man from the vil­lage of Kahnat, in Ibri dis­trict, planted an olive tree given to him as a present by an Egyptian teacher. After some years, the lonely tree started giv­ing fruits and has­n’t stopped.

The Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry, encour­aged by the suc­cess of this Omani olive pio­neer, brought from abroad, espe­cially from Syria, sev­eral vari­eties of olive trees but the dry and hot Omani cli­mate was too much for them.

But the will to pro­duce olive oil pushed the Ministry to con­tinue to invest in research and, in 2009, an engi­neer at Sultan Qaboos University, Qais Ben Saif Al Maawali, started tri­als in dif­fer­ent areas and the suc­cess story of olive grow­ing in Oman began.

The Ministry pro­vided a small facil­ity for olive oil extrac­tion, allow­ing local farm­ers to use it for free.

After years of low pro­duc­tion, from 2010 to 2013, some started to ques­tion if the groves could adapt to Omani land. But, sur­pris­ingly this spring trees blos­somed and now the Ministry and farm­ers are claim­ing vic­tory.

Based on research sta­tions installed in dif­fer­ent dis­tricts with good results, Maawali said olive trees can pros­per just about any­where in Oman.

Time will tell if the patience and the efforts of men and women of Oman will be rewarded.

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