Syria’s southern Daraa province is forecasting an olive harvest of about 35,000 tons for the 2026/27 season, more than triple last year’s roughly 11,000 tons, according to local agriculture officials cited by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on October 8, 2026.
A Sharp Rebound From Last Year’s Drought
Hassan al-Ahmad, head of the Agricultural Economics and Planning Department at the Daraa Directorate of Agriculture, attributed the jump to a combination of factors: alternating bearing (the natural high-and-low yield cycle of olive trees), recovery from the 2025 drought, and newly maturing trees entering production for the first time. Daraa’s olive groves cover roughly 180 million square meters and count about 3.364 million trees, of which some 3.1 million are now productive. Of this year’s crop, roughly one-third is expected to go to table olives and two-thirds to oil pressing, which is scheduled to begin on October 15 under a Ministry of Agriculture directive.
Mill Capacity and What It Means for the Wider Market
Daraa currently has 37 operating olive presses, with about 11 more out of service, and daily processing capacity ranging from 20 to 40 tons of olives per line. Local industry officials say they are working to secure electricity, offer customs exemptions on milling machinery, and support production-line renewal ahead of the harvest. Nationally, Syria’s Ministry of Agriculture has estimated the 2026/27 crop at roughly 954,730 tons of olives, with an expected olive oil output of about 190,946 tons. For buyers who source Tunisian olive oil, a larger Eastern Mediterranean harvest is a useful signal: regional supply swings across producers like Syria and Tunisia influence global olive oil prices and availability each season, which is worth factoring into the timing of supplier contracts and purchase planning.
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FAQ
How big is Syria’s 2026/27 olive harvest expected to be? Syria’s Daraa province is forecasting an olive harvest of about 35,000 tons for the 2026/27 season, more than triple the roughly 11,000 tons harvested the previous year, according to the Daraa Directorate of Agriculture.
What is driving the jump in Syria’s olive production this year? Officials point to alternating bearing, recovery from the 2025 drought, and newly maturing olive trees entering production as the main drivers, according to Hassan al-Ahmad of the Daraa Directorate of Agriculture.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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