Gaza, ALRAY - Ministry of Agriculture announced on Thursday the beginning of the olive harvest season for 2013.

Minister Ali Al-Tarshawi and ministry staff attended the celebration of a new olive harvest season at an olive farm in the south city of the Gaza Strip of Khan Younis.

Al-Tarshawi announced tht the Gaza Strip is expected to produce around 10,000 tons of olives this season, an amount far less than the amount produced in 2013. 

He said the ministry is planning to import olives from the occupied West Bank to meet the full demand of the Gaza Strip.

Tarshawi revealed his ministry is working to expand the Gaza Strip's olive harvesting lands in the coming years to reach 36,450 dunums.

"The Gaza Strip usually produces huge amounts of olives and citrus products, but because of Israel's aggression against the agricultural areas in Gaza during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, this produce has sharply decreased," he noted.