PROJECT TITLE

Unlocking the Olive Economy: A Pathway to Sustainable Food Systems in Jordan

Jordan’s olive and olive oil sector engages over 80,000 producers and is central to rural livelihoods, yet remains fragmented, under capitalized, and highly vulnerable to climate impacts, weak traceability, informal labor, and limited investment in modern processing. Smallholders, women, youth, and informal workers face persistent barriers to finance, land use planning, market access, and quality certification. The Joint Programme transforms the olive value chain into a national model for food systems transformation by modernizing governance (via a new National Consultation & Coordination Committee), deploying digital orchard profiling systems, strengthening cooperatives/clusters, reducing environmental impacts, and introducing a pioneering blended finance mechanism to unlock private capital at scale.

• Jordan’s institutions strengthen climate‑adaptive planning and value‑chain governance through improved use of digital data and traceability systems.
• Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and cooperatives across the olive value chain become more competitive, resilient, and capable of securing investment and accessing higher‑value markets.
• A sustainable cooperative/cluster ecosystem improves productivity, service delivery, and economic inclusion.
• Access to finance for on-farm and off-farm value chain (OOVC) actors increases as local banks adopt risk‑sharing mechanisms and expand sector‑specific lending.
• Policy and regulatory reforms improve product certification, land‑use governance, and cross‑ministerial coordination.

Ministry of Agriculture; Higher Council for Food Security; Ministry of Local Administration; Ministry of Environment; MoITS; MoDEE; Agricultural Credit Corporation; Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation; domestic banks; Jordan Cooperative Corporation; NARC; private sector processors/exporters; financial institutions.

• A digital orchard profiling and traceability platform is developed, tested, and deployed in priority governorates.
• National and local authorities receive structured technical assistance packages on sustainable land use, water efficiency, and market integration.
• A National OOVC Coordination Committee is formally established, with regular meetings, workplans, and investment mapping tools.
• SME support packages are delivered, resulting in a measurable number of bankable proposals in value addition, greening, and traceability.
• A hybrid portfolio guarantee facility is designed, operationalized, and piloted with participating banks, including at least one new loan product.