The director of the Bani Kenana Agriculture Directorate, Dr. Abd al-Ilah Obeidat, confirmed that the strategic solution to stop wasting tons of green almonds after the high supply, and selling them at prices that are not commensurate with the costs of their production, lies in drying them.

And Obeidat indicated that as a result of the increase in the quantities of production, especially for the green almond crop, the quantities offered have become surplus to the needs of the local market, especially in light of not allowing the surplus to be exported to foreign markets and the absence of proper promotion and packaging of the crop, which led to a decrease in the quality of the product and its sale as popular products. Prices do not meet production costs, which caused great losses to farmers.

He pointed out that it is necessary to find actual solutions to diversify marketing operations, and find marketing alternatives for almonds to preserve it as a national product, explaining that the production of dry almonds has become a strategic solution for farmers, to stop wasting tons of green almonds, by finding alternatives and new marketing outlets that contribute to supporting farmers in the future. .

Obeidat stated that farmers’ lack of interest in investing in dry almonds is due to the absence of the use of supporting agricultural technologies and machines, including automated harvesting, peeling, sterilization and packaging machines, and the failure to introduce agricultural mechanization for this purpose, in addition to the failure to educate and direct farmers to preserve this agricultural wealth through Drying, noting that Jordan depends entirely on importing dry almonds from abroad.

Obeidat called on farmers not to harvest the almonds completely from the orchards and to start the process of drying them, and to demand the import of modern mechanisms for peeling the almonds, which will provide additional job opportunities for unemployed youth and rural women in the region, through the appropriate packaging and packaging processes for various almond products, as well as It works to open additional internal and external markets to market farmers’ products from the almond sector.