Food & Agriculture

Damascus has been struggling to acquire urea fertilisers, a key input for farmers, ahead of the wheat and barley sowing season.

The NGO Assistance Coordination Unit has published a survey among farmers and livestock producers in northern Syria evaluating the availability of resources, strengths and weaknesses of the agricultural sector and the main challenges farmers and livestock producers face.

Syria and Sudan have signed a two-year executive programme to develop research cooperation ties and trade exchanges in the agricultural field, following the visit to Damascus of the Sudanese Minister of Agriculture at the end of July. While business ties between the two conflict-ridden countries are limited, they rely heavily on the agriculture sector.

The Autonomous Administration in Northeast Syria (AANES) has announced a remarkably low wheat procurement price of USD 310 per tonne for the current season, down from USD 430 in 2023, sparking a wave of protests from farmers in several cities, among them Qamishli, Raqqa, Darbasiyah and Amuda. 

Damascus has opened the tobacco sector to private investment, a move that puts an end to decades of state monopoly over the harvesting, production, and trading of tobacco. The revenues of tobacco and cigarette sales of the General Organisation for Tobacco stood at SYP 433 billion in 2023, with a net profit of SYP 19.5 billion.

In its 2023 Annual Report on Syria, the World Food Program announced it extended its Country Strategic Plan until December 2025, and said that “moving forward” the agency will “implement an even more targeted response."

Fish production has reached 13,000 tonnes this season, reaching pre-2011 levels. Syria's imports of fish and fishery products are expected to rise following the Central Bank of Syria's decision on February 18 to allow tourist establishments to import seafood and fishery items not available in the local market.

Recent official estimates show that the livestock sector in Syria, once a cornerstone of the agriculture sector and a key source of foreign currency, is caught in a steep decline, with sheep herds dropping by 41 percent between 2016 and 2022.

As captagon trade flourishes, the already dire security situation in Suweida governorate is reaching new lows and seeping into local businesses. Illustrating the power of local armed gangs, earlier this month, a group of armed men broke into the factory of Fresh Mountain Juice and looted the premises. Law enforcement is yet to make an act of presence while the armed men are still in control of the building, and shareholders are considering shutting down the factory.

The UNIDO has a USD 2.25 million project to revitalise Syrian agro-food businesses that Russia funds. In addition to that project, UNIDO is funding three other projects to help the Syrian government reduce the use of chemicals harming the ozone layer.

On Monday, the WFP announced the end of its general food assistance program in Syria in January due to a shortfall in funding. The WFP serves 3.2 million people in Syria.

This season, Syria's olive crop is estimated at 711,000 tonnes, a 13 percent decline from 820,000 tonnes harvested last year, while olive oil production is forecast at 91,000 tonnes.

The Ministry of Finance's decision to withhold a SYP 562 billion loan to the General Organisation for Cotton Ginning and Marketing has led to acute delays in payments for cotton farmers.

Recent reports have sounded the alarm on the bleak water crisis that five million people in northeast Syria are facing. The roots of the water dilemma are entangled and protracted and the political instability in the northeast hinders efforts to design a comprehensive strategy to manage the dwindling water resources. 

Amid rising food insecurity levels and wheat shortages, the Syrian government has recently contracted with Russian suppliers for the import of 1.4 million tonnes of soft wheat, which is used to produce bread. The wheat harvest across the country has improved this year but still falls short of the local demand.

The chronic underfunding of Syria’s humanitarian operation has taken a darker turn this summer with cuts affecting 2.5 million people in Syria, and dozens of thousands in Jordan and Iraq.

The wheat sector is among the few to benefit from government investments as Damascus attempts to develop a strong supply chain.

The government hopes the restoration of ties with the Arab world will boost its aviation sector.

The Syrian government and the AANES expect the wheat harvest this year to be higher than in 2022, as local authorities compete to purchase the crop from farmers.

Over 100 days after the February 06 earthquake, the agricultural sector in Northwest Syria – where the vast majority of people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods – remains severely damaged, according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The sector has already suffered from conflict-related damages to infrastructure, irrigation, and inputs.