Market Study and Marketing Strategy for Olive and Olive Oil Sector in the Southern Arid Part of Jordan

This study aimed at characterizing the livelihood of communities in term of their assets and opportunities and identifying and describing the corresponding market segment(s), as well as devising a suitable marketing strategy that would ultimately lead to more effective community engagement. A socio-economic questionnaire was designed to elicit basic numerical data on olive production, and marketing system of olive and olive oil, and agricultural practices. The study was conducted during 2014-2015 for 155 farmers, distributed in four sub-governorates in Karak Governorate. Research findings and SWOT analysis shows that the Jordanian Olive Sector in general, and Karak Olive Sector in particular, has a good potential to grow and expand further, particularly in light of recent developments that the sector has undergone and the modernization of olive oil presses. However, the sector has a number of weaknesses that are restricting it from realizing its growth potential. Key weaknesses are related to fragmentation of the sector, labor availability, skills and work-ethic issues, marketing and branding, packaging, warehousing, lack of coordination with the olive oil presses as well as limited financial and management planning know-how. Finally, study of the enterprise budget of olive crop showed that the rate of olive oil production per hectare reached 650 kg, the average price was US$ 5.5 kg-1, the Gross margin was US$ 2009 ha-1, with US$ 692 net profit.