Palestinian green wheat crops grow, but locked-in customers aren't buying

Record ID: 1552015

  • Title: Palestinian green wheat crops grow, but locked-in customers aren't buying
  • Date: 13th May 2020
  • Summary: NEAR JENIN, WEST BANK (MAY 4, 2020) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN WORKERS PROCESSING GREEN WHEAT 'FREEKEH' USED TO MAKE MIDDLE EASTERN CEREAL DISH VARIOUS OF WORKERS ROASTING WHEAT SPIKES TO MAKE MAKING FREEKEH VARIOUS OF WORKERS PROCESSING ROASTED WHEAT NEAR JENIN, WEST BANK (MAY 10, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN FARMER, ALI SAHMOUD, SAYING: "People are staying home and this affected the prices and affected us a lot. We are unable to sell our products because there are many products in the markets but there are nobody to buy." VARIOUS OF WORKERS PROCESSING FREEKEH AND FILLING ROASTED WHEAT IN BAGS FREEKEH BEING PROCESSED (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN FARMER, ALI SAHMOUD, SAYING: "We are unable to market our products fresh because it can take us a day or two days to move between governorates, Nabuls, TulKarem, Qalqilya, it is difficult to move between the governorates." WORKER MOVING BAG VARIOUS OF WORKER SEALING BAG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN MERCHANT, BASSAM ZAKARNEH, SAYING: "The coronavirus did not affect our crops and harvest but it affected our marketing, it is very important to market a product to have an open market and have people around." VARIOUS OF WORKER DRIVING TRACTOR AND HARVESTING WHEAT WHEAT BEING HARVEST TRACTOR MOVING IN FIELD
  • Embargoed: 27th May 2020 12:08
  • Keywords: COVID-19 Coronavirus Farmers Farming Freekeh Jenin Lockdown Palestinians Quarantine West Bank Wheat
  • Location: NEAR JENIN, WEST BANK
  • City: NEAR JENIN, WEST BANK
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA001CDRLPP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:The coronavirus pandemic has created a glut of excess produce in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian farmers say, with restrictions keeping market-goers at home and hitting producers' bottom lines.
    The spring season would usually see an outpouring of customers to buy heirloom vegetables and crops such as freekeh, a rich cereal popular across the Middle East.
    Not this year, farmer Ali Sahmoud, 62, said as he and other workers harvested land in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where freekeh plantations total some 20 percent of all cultivated land.
    Palestinian officials in the West Bank have imposed strict coronavirus restrictions, confining Palestinians mostly to their homes since the outbreak began.
    There are about 40,000 dunums cultivated in wheat in Jenin governorate. About 8,000 dunums are used to produce freekeh, according to Palestinian agricultural ministry officials.
    The annual production rate of Freekeh in Jenin is about 6,500 tonnes, half of which is exported to different countries in the world, officials added.
    Palestinian officials have reported two COVID-19 deaths and 375 cases across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
    (Production: Mohamad Torokman, Mustafa Abu Ganeyeh, Rami Ayyub)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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