Olive production increased by 25,000 metric tons in the outgoing year (to end March 20) compared to last year, Mohammad Ramezani, an official in ministry of agricultural Jihad said in a news conference on Sunday. According to Mehr news agency, the country has the potential to produce 115,000 tons of olive from the total 60,000 hectares of fertile olive gardens (two tons of olive from each hectare on average), he said. The official noted that 70 percent of the produced olive will be canned and the rest will go to olive oil production. Ramezani hoped that in the future the majority of the produced olive will be used to manufacture olive oil once the administration allocates the required subsidy to this sector.
