(MENAFN- Jordan Times) AMMAN — Homemade soaps, pastries, handmade instruments and, most importantly, olive oil, are some of the products on display at the National Olive Festival and Rural Products' Exhibition, where almost 300 farmers, associations, production companies and institutions gathered to showcase their products.
Held under the theme 'From the hands of the farmer to the consumer', the 18th edition of the festival, which will last for four days, was inaugurated on Wednesday.
'The goal of this festival is to establish a bridge between the producers and the consumers,' Nizar Haddad, director general of the National Centre for Agricultural Research and Extension, told The Jordan Times at the inauguration ceremony.
The director general said that the institutions participating in the festival brought their products from all areas across the country to be displayed to the buyers of Amman.
'This is an event that farmers are waiting for every year because they make most of their income directly through this market,' Haddad said.
The event also encourages consumers to buy their products directly from the producers, Fayyad Alzyoud, chairman of the Jordan Olive Producers and Exporters Association (JOPEA), told The Jordan Times, adding 'this kind of exhibitions gives consumers, householders and professional chefs a chance to find high quality products'.
Producers of olive oil are also presenting their products at the festival.
Jordan is the fourth producer of olive oil among Arab countries and the eighth at the global level. Olive trees account for 34 per cent of the cultivated area in the Kingdom, generating JD120 million per year for the national economy.
'We are fully satisfied with the production of oil and olive fruits in Jordan,' Haddad said.
According to the JOPEA chairman, the association's products are exported to over 50 countries around the world, from Japan to the US.
This year's edition witnessed the attendance of international organisations such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the German Agency for International Development, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the International Olive Council (OIC) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.
FAO is supporting several stands of women producers during the festival, Wafaa Alramadneh, programme officer at the UN Agency, toldThe Jordan Times.
'Supporting those women to be able to produce with better quality, diversity and helping them meet the demands of the market is the goal of our initiative,' she said.
'For those small producers, the exhibition is a chance to enter the small market, where the competition is very hard,' Alramadneh continued, noting that, with the ongoing crises in neighbouring countries, competition has increased in the internal market.
FAO provides training and capacity building to women, enabling them to enter the market and adding value to their products, the programme officer said.
In this way, they can compete with other producers, either small or big. 'When small producers come together, acting as one body and speaking the same language, they produce the same product with better quality,' Alramadneh said.
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