`Moroccan City Bans Olive Trees Citing Allergy Concerns - Olive Oil Times

Moroccan City Bans Olive Trees Citing Allergy Concerns

By Olive Oil Times Staff
Sep. 22, 2014 11:10 UTC
Oujda, Morocco

Oujda, a city in north­east­ern Morocco, has put forth a sweep­ing ban on olive trees cit­ing allergy risks from the trees’ pollen. The city’s mayor, Omar Hijra, who is also a phar­ma­cist, said that olive trees are one of the top causes of the sea­sonal annoy­ance. The trees account for up to 90 per­cent of all green­ery in some areas of the city.

If trees are not removed by December 31, the city will take it upon itself to remove the trees and bill the owner, even if the plant is located on pri­vate prop­erty. The munic­i­pal­ity hopes that own­ers will replant or sell the trees out­side city lim­its.

Oujda, a city of around 500,000, is close to the Algerian bor­der and about 55 km from the Mediterranean sea.

According to Hijra, a large per­cent­age of res­i­dents approve of the mea­sure. He says that the oper­a­tion could take up to five years due to the vast num­ber of plants in the city.

Morocco pro­duced approx­i­mately 100,000 tons of table olives this sea­son and 15,000 tons of olive oil.


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