Olive production is expected to increase to 100,000 tons in the current Iranian year (started March 21) from last year’s 95,000 tons, said the Agricultural Jihad Ministry’s Olive Project’s executive, Mohammad Ramezani, on Wednesday. The project is a government scheme to purchase olive from farmers at a guaranteed price. ISNA quoted the official as saying that the estimated amount will be cultivated from close to 50,000 hectares of active olive farms across the country. Domestic olive production is recovering from an outbreak of olive fruit fly pest during 2012-13.
