Damascus - Syria is one of the oldest countries in producing pistachio. Throughout history, Aleppo has been famous for planting pistachio tree and from it the tree was expand to other countries.
The total land areas planted with pistachio reached 556.000 hectare that include about 10 million trees, 6.470 million of them are fruitful. Syria produces about 60 thousand tones annually to make it the forth country in the world after Iran, USA and Turkey.
Hama is considered as the first governorate in producing pistachio whether in quantity or quality and the second after Aleppo that has 4 million trees in comparison to 3 million trees in Hama, 2.8 million trees of them are fruitful.
Director of pistachio Office Hasan Ibrahim said that Syria is producing more than 20 kinds of the pistachio, mainly al-Ashouri that comes first with 85% of the planted lands.
Expert in the cultivation and production of pistachios Faoaz al-Halabi said that pistachio trees are known for a long time since references indicate that it was known for about 3500 BC, adding that Minor Asia and West Asia, particularly Aleppo are considered the original home for the pistachio.
The economic studies indicate that the nutritional value of pistachio is very high and it has a medical value, in addition, many people find it delicious as well as it is a main element in sweet, chocolate and ice cream industry.
By I. al-Kazhali / M. Eyon /mo
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2010