International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

Purpose: The majority of this paper aims to explain and analyze the market and distribution channels for the olives and olive oil grown in Irbid City; Bani-Kenaneh region, studying the factors that affect production, and identifying the strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and challenges for this sector.

Background: The olive sector is considered one of the most important agricultural sectors in Jordan (about 80 thousand Jordanian families depend directly or indirectly on olive cultivation as the main source of income). Olive oil production revenues are an important source of the national economy; contributing about 100 million JD. Marketing channels have been linked with an increase in production and growth of cultivated areas, in the last few years ago had an extension of olive cultivation to the eastern desert areas, which placed planting olives in these areas in front of the challenges most notably limited water resources, soil and irrigation water salinity and sometimes the nature of the installation of the strength of the soil. Therefore, it’s essential to take measures to reconsider the expansion of olive cultivation in the groundwater irrigated areas which affect raising the cost of olive and olive oil production to higher rates compared with the same foreign product.

Originality/value: The purpose of this paper is to interpret the role of each factor in the olive and olive oil value chain as well as to reduce the knowledge gap by suggesting some empirical solutions that could present benefits to the value chain production in the study area.

The study area selection is related to my current career path and it has a potential contribution to achieving the olive and olive oil study objectives in the past and future, I mean the "Kafari" variety which is much more popular in the study area.

Status of olive production in Jordan: Jordan has a variety of olive crops grown in various agricultural areas. For small-scale farmers, olive crops are a major source of income as well as an important food item. Olive production differs from the planting of a few trees in the backyard for domestic consumption to the large-scale production in local markets. Olive cultivation is also based on smallholdings, the most important of which are low production inputs and low outputs. The use of improved varieties and production inputs such as pesticides, fertilizers production plants are not common in the smallholder sector.

Materials and Methods: To achieve the study objectives, a number of statistical methods were used including descriptive statistics and econometric analysis. This study used secondary data along with government statistics of private and international accredited agencies in order to calculate the value-added and marketing margins for different marketing channels and the Multiple Regression Analysis Model.

Results: This paper offers that the olive growers follow the traditional approach in order to market olives using a few channels, calculating the value-added and marketing margins for different channels showing the added value was 2 JD/kg and the pickle factories acquired 60% of the gross margin. Meanwhile, the added value for the olive oil was 6.5 JD/Kg and the top gross margin was 38% for the farmers. The study recommended adapting a certain policy that targets to increase the farmers' access to modern inputs as well as to improve extension services to accelerate development in this vital sector from different pivots, such as legislation and regulation along with packaging, promotion, specifications, and focus on post-harvest to improve product quality and quantity.