Palestinian Grape Farmers See Market Collapse Amid Virus Outbreak

Business

September 10th, 10:25am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Grapevines covered with colorful bedroom linen and tablecloths to protect the grapes from the sun are pictured at a Palestinian vineyard south of the West Bank Palestinian city of Bethlehem on September 10, 2020. / AFP / MENAHEM KAHANA

Palestinian grape farmers are boasting a bumper crop this year, helped in part by coronavirus lockdowns that gave many of them more time to till their vines in the occupied West Bank. But the pandemic's economic ravages have also slashed sales of the fruit, depressing the hilly breadbasket region of Hebron. "This year the yield was good, the rain was good, the grapes are all good ... but there is no market, because of this disease," said farmer Mohammad Abdellatif Jallak, folding sheets of "malban", or fruit leather made from dried grapes. The pandemic, said Hebron Chamber of Commerce chairman Nour al-Deen Jaradat, "made people look after their lands more, and thus the production amounts increased, and so did the quality. But unfortunately there was a failure in marketing." For lack of customers, grapes that previous sold for around $10 box are now being turned into molasses at almost half the value, said Muntaser al-Jaabari, a fruit merchant, Reuters reported. A UN agency warned Tuesday that the pandemic was compounding dire economic conditions in the Palestinian territories, where 2019 unemployment was 33 percent and GDP per capita is projected to fall by 3 percent to 4.5 percent this year.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2499806/palestinian-grape-farmers-see-market-collapse-amid-virus-outbreak