On Saturday, General Director of the Jordanian Farmers' Union, Mahmoud Al-Oran, confirmed that the union is against the export of Jordanian olives to Israel, due to the latter's recent practices of obliterating the original source of olives.
He added that once the Jordanian olives have been transported to Israel, they are repackaged and sold as an “Israeli product.”
"In addition, Israel squeezes the Jordanian olives and exports them to the European Union countries at very high prices as if it was planted in Jerusalem for religious reasons" he noted.
Al-Oran confirmed that this is a crime against Jordan, and a gift to Israel, adding that exporting raw olives hurts the local economy, as Jordanians would otherwise be hired to run local presses to process the fruit.
Jordan's olive harvest runs from October through November and most of the produce is consumed locally. A 16-kilo (35.2-pound) container of olive oil is expected to sell for 80 Jordanian dinars ($112) this season. Shoppers added that a kilo (2.2 pounds) of olives is selling for 10 dinars ($14) in the farmers markets.
Abdel Rahman Ghaith, a board member of the Jordan Exporters and Producers Association for Fruit and Vegetables, pointed out that exports do affect the local economy.
"While olive exports to Israel are about 3% to 5% of the total production, we believe they have had a negative effect on prices," he said, adding that most of the olives exported to Israel are for table use. He insists that if fewer table olives are available in Jordan, their price will rise there.
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