In a normal year the harvest would have started weeks earlier, but until the truce farmers were afraid of being mistaken for Hamas militants and targeted by Israeli forces if they ventured out into the olive groves.

Some lands were also damaged by fighting or the passage of military vehicles, while some farmers were displaced from their homes and unable to get back to their groves.

“This war destroyed us. There’s hardly any production. The majority of the harvest was wasted,” said Fathy Abu Salah, who was picking olives with a small team, sorting them from leaves and twigs on a groundsheet and collecting them in a wheelbarrow.

He said that normally they would harvest enough olives to fill 12 containers, but this year they would fill just one. There were other problems linked to the war, he said, such as a dearth of fuel to transport the olives to the nearest press.

“We are trying to do this with all of the resources we have in these six days (of truce),” said Abu Salah. “This fruit is all we have. This is how we make a living year after year.”

At the Wafy press in Khan Younis, the machinery had cranked into operation weeks late. Sacks of olives were being brought in on the backs of carts pulled by donkeys.

Olives were coming down a chute that rattled from side to side before falling into the press. Thick golden oil was pouring out into a metal vat, while men waited to collect it in yellow jerry cans.

“When the truce started, we were thinking about whether or not we were going to work. But then came the problem of the olive press which needs electricity, and there is no electricity, meaning we had to find fuel, and finding fuel is a crisis that everyone is facing,” said manager Mohamed Wafy.

“There were some who were able to transport their olives to us and had to buy fuel in the black market at much higher prices. As soon as we secured access to fuel, we were able to open the olive press, even if it’s working at minimum capacity.”

Wafy said almost all of his own olives fell to the ground before he was able to get to his land. He said some farmers had found nothing, while others had harvested a fraction of what they would normally expect.

“The season is gone,” he said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Bassam Masoud and Saleh Salem; additional reporting by Fadi Shana; writing by Estelle Shirbon.

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The 18 attachés involved in the report expect about 31.07 million tonnes in total, for a 0.4 per cent bump in total oilseed output from 2021-22.

The oilseeds included in the report consisted of those grown and imported. Those imported are palm kernel, peanuts, and copra. Those grown in the EU are:

The nearly two-month-old war in Ukraine has impeded its sunflower production — and that’s one reason for the EU planting more oilseeds in 2022-23. The attachés projected a 4.6 per cent increase from 2021-22 at 28.83 million acres.

However, impediments such as the high costs of fuel, fertilizers and pesticides are expected to temper any notable increases in planted area spurred on by higher commodity prices.

Also, the attachés are expecting smaller yields. Due to greater overall EU consumption, total oilseed ending stocks are to drop almost 22.9 per cent at 1.57 million tonnes. In turn, all of this will intensify an already-tight global supply situation with oilseeds.

The total oilseed crush is projected to rise a little bit as well in 2022-23, by 1.3 per cent at nearly 47.04 million tonnes. That is to include meal production of 30.47 million tonnes and imports of 19.11 million. Meal ending stocks for 2022-23 are expected to increase to 1.03 million from the 816,000 tonnes in 2021-22.

As for edible oils, production was projected to come to 18.04 million tonnes in 2022-23, up a pinch from the 18.03 the previous year. Oil ending stocks too are to remain steady at 1.85 million tonnes.

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