Iqlaa supports 22ndNational Olive Festival & Rural Products Exhibition

AMMAN — The Informal Livelihoods Advancement Activity (Iqlaa) funded by USAID, provided support to the 22nd National Olive Festival and Rural Products Exhibition organised by the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and local and international partners.

Recently launched, Iqlaa is a five-year programme implemented by Mercy Corps and partners. The program supports Jordan's home-based businesses and micro and small enterprises to grow, transform, and become resilient to future shocks, according to a Mercy Corps Jordan statement.

Iqlaa provided marketing support promoting the olive festival to the public to enhance visibility for agricultural, home-based, micro and small businesses participating in the festival. 

NARC Director General Nizar Haddad said: “More than 500 farmers, associations, schools, companies, and olive mills are taking part in the festival’s activities.”

“There will be laboratory tests on olive oil for quality assurance as per international standards,” he added.

Chief of Party at Iqlaa, Laith Al Qassem, said” “Iqlaa actively seeks to support home-based, micro and small businesses to achieve stabilisation and growth and to sustainably improve revenues as means to create job opportunities. We are delighted to collaborate with NARC in this National Olive Festival, which has built a remarkable legacy over the past 23 years.The event serves as a very important venue to increase market linkages and promote participating businesses, including women-led businesses.”  

For over 23 years, the  annual Olive Festival is hosted in Amman. The festival brings together an array of stakeholders from the market, in the hopes to create more collaboration between small olive farmers and distributors. The Olive Festival serves as an ideal venue to increase market linkages, heighten public awareness, incentivize olive oil producers to improve the overall quality of their products, and drive the sale of olive oil and related products across the governorate, the statement said.

The 10-day festival kicked off on November 24 at Mecca Mall.