Stone Fruits, Pome Fruits, & Bananas production in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 318. Chapter IX: Agriculture: Section 1: Agriculture Production: (b) Crops and Cropping

CHAPTER IX.

a remunerative crop, particularly since there is a good market demand and areas in the world suitable for almond growing are limited. Plantings of walnuts, which are now on a small scale, could be extended in certain areas and the same applies to the pecan nut which is a recent introduction to Palestine.

STONE FRUITS.

22. Apricots and peaches, mainly the former, are planted on some 22,000 dunums, mostly Arab owned, but so long as the attack by the Mediterranean fruit fly cannot really be controlled, any appreciable extension of the area is unlikely. There are now some 6,000 dunums of plums in the country; about half this area is planted to Japanese plums which are growing well and supplanting the local varieties; the larger proportion of the Japanese plum plantings is Jewish owned. European plums and prunes have fair possibilities of success in a few areas of highest elevation.

Pone FRUITS.

23. Palestine conditions are by no means ideal for pome fruits and plantations are apt to be short lived. Nevertheless, apart from the local inferior varieties, certain other varieties, if properly cared for and planted in suitable areas, particularly at the higher elevations, can produce fruit of fairly good quality for the local market. The Jewish owned apple area is some 6,000 dunums (European varieties) and the Arab owned area 11,000 dunums (only 1,000 dunums European varieties); the area planted to European varieties produces about half of the present total annual production of around 4,000 tons. The area planted to pears is some 2,500 dunums, approximately equally Arab and Jewish owned, the Arab owned area being mostly of local varieties; some extension of planting with varieties containing Asiatic strains for canning and drying purposes is under consideration. The quince grows well in Palestine but the area planted, some 500 dunums, is limited by the demand.

BANANAS.

24. About 60 per cent. of the area (nearly 8,000 dunums) planted with bananas is Arab owned. Approximately equal areas are planted at Jericho , around Tiberias and in the central coastal plain. Average annual yields, including young plantations. are about 1 ton per dunum. Extension of banana growing was favoured under war-time conditions and it remains to he seen whether export, which was begun on a trial scale to the Balkans and Russia before the war, and the local market will justify further planting for which some suitable areas are still available.

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