Hama, Oct. 1 (SANA) A cotton gin in Syria’s Hama province resumed operations on Wednesday after a four-year shutdown, processing supplies from eastern provinces as high production costs kept farmers in the surrounding area from growing the crop.
The Mhardeh facility can process about 12 tonnes of seed cotton per shift and is initially operating one shift, with a second possible if needed, gin director Sattam Dayoub told SANA.
The gin received 725 tonnes during its last processing season in 2022. Over the following three years, its work was limited to receiving farmers’ cotton and transferring it to the al-Assi and al-Fida facilities.
Dayoub said the first delivery of this season’s cotton arrived on Monday, and workers had completed preparations before processing began.
Mahmoud al-Khalil, deputy director-general of the General Establishment for Cotton Ginning and Marketing, said the restart would help complete seasonal processing on schedule. The establishment distributes incoming cotton among gins according to production areas.
Ginning is also underway at the al-Assi facility in Hama and the Tishreen facility in Aleppo, while Hama’s al-Fida gin remains out of operation, he said.
Al-Khalil said cotton cultivation had declined significantly in most provinces because production costs were higher than those of alternative crops.
Mahmoud Sayyadi, a farmer from Shaizar village, said growers in the Mhardeh area had stopped planting cotton several years ago as fuel, labor, seed and fertilizer costs rose.
Farmers had switched to cheaper, more profitable crops, he said, calling for support for production inputs, particularly fuel and seeds, to encourage a return to cotton.
Ahmad Qattan, a cotton trader from Aleppo, urged authorities to set a purchase price that reflected production costs and encouraged farmers to expand planting.
He said Syria produced about 1.165 million tonnes of seed cotton in 1997, highlighting the crop’s potential contribution to the economy.
IZ/M.F
