A Survey of Palestinian Industry: Food, Drinks, And Tobacco in Palestine before 1948 (Nakba), British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 516. Chapter XIII: Section 4

CHAPTER XIII.

I. Food, DRINKS AND TOBACCO.

130. Some indication of the expansion that has occurred in the processing of foodstuffs can he seen from the following comparative table for a number of articles :-

I Production
Unit
1939 I 1942 I 1943 I 1944
Standard flour tons - 45,000 131,377 158,341
Vermicelli & macaroni tons 200 1,700 1,800 2,350
Margarine tons 1,000 4,218 3,720 3,635
Butter tons 270 430 606 769
Cheese tons 670 1,700 1,900 1,767
Jam tons 920 13,760 21,751 15,466
Squashes & juices tons 1,270 4,966 17,673 15,873
Citrus concentrates tons - - 787 1,356
Canned & preserved
vegetables & fruit I tons - 379 3,020 2,138
Chocolate & cocoa tons 1,000 2,500 2,300 1,365
Confectionary tons 800 2,100 1,700 1,700
Yeast tons 212 465 433 453
Meat products I
(sausages, etc.) tons 200 600 1,000 1,500
Beer 1000 I
litres 2.017 I 9,959 11,571 16,377
Wines 1000
litres 3.421 I 4,090 4,316 5,455
Spirits 1000
litres 1,275 1,777 2,376 2,374
In the various food industries, Jewish enterprise is predominant with the exception of cigarettes and grain milling where the Arab mills account for one-half of the output. The Jewish milling industry is organised for the production of fine flour from overseas cereals, whilst the Arab mills are equipped for the milling of local hard wheat.

131. Edible oils. The refining of edible oils is one of Palestine's earliest modern industries. Firmly entrenched, even before the war, it has been of great value in maintaining the country's supplies when the imports of butter and edible fats ceased. The advanced processes employed in oil refining, the hydrogenation for fat hardening, the production of pure glycerine, and the high consumption of oil cake by local dairy farmers, all provide competitive advantages which may enable the industry to maintain its position.

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