Syria

SHOTLIST November 7 2012 1. Mid of olive tree branch with woman harvesting olives 2. Close-up of woman's hand scraping olives off the branch 3. Close-up low shot of blanket on the ground next to the woman's feet, olives falling off the tree 4. Extreme close-up of olives on the blanket 5. Wide of olives being harvested from tree 6. Close-up of olives being pushed into bag 7. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mohammad Kadur Hassan, 63, olive farmer from Atmeh: "Merchants who used to buy our oil and olive products are not taking it any more. The price in recent years was higher than it is this year. A kilogram of green olives cost 55 to 60 Syrian pounds (78-86 US cents), now it costs 30 Syrian pounds (43 US cents). This is because our region is rich with olive trees, so people here don't need our olives and our oil." November 8 2012 8. Mid of olives falling into a oil production machine 9. Extreme close-up of olives 10. Wide of olive oil machine in oil production plant 11. Mid of olives being mashed in machine 12. Close-up of olive oil flowing out of pipe 13. Wide of oil pouring out of machine into drums 14. Close-up of oil being decanted into a tin can November 7 2012 15. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mohammad Kadur Hassan, 63, olive farmer from Atmeh: "We can't export our oil. We negotiated with some Turkish companies who said they don't need it because they can't import it. So, at the moment we are lost, we don't know what to do with the extra oil. We don't know where to take it. " 16. Wide of petrol merchant rolling a petrol barrel 17. Mid of barrel with man carrying hose 18. Close-up of hose in barrel 19. Petrol merchant filling jug with petrol 20. Wide of open fire next to petrol containers November 8 2012 21. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Saddur, 54, petrol merchant from Aaqrabat: "The regime is still distributing petrol, but they give it to merchants who double the prices. Even triple them. Merchants take triple the prices (of those before the war)." 22. Wide of improvised petrol station with barrels ++DUSK SHOTS++ 23. Wide of grocery shop 24. Tilt down of tinned products on shelf in grocery shop 25. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Maan Amouri, 23, Ambulance driver and graduate of Economic University from Atmeh: "A kilogramme of sugar was 20 Syrian pounds (29 US cents), now it is anywhere between 60 to 85 Syrian pounds (86 US cents to 1.21 US dollars). Currently, everybody knows how difficult and dangerous it is for the merchants to bring the food from Aleppo. There are snipers everywhere." 26. Wide of Amouri coming out of the shop and getting into his ambulance 27. Close-up of Amouri in the ambulance driving away STORYLINE: The civil war raging through Syria has battered much of the country's economy, making life harder for poor Syrians who were struggling even before the fighting broke out. The hardships are clear even in places spared large scale destruction, such as the village of Atmeh which lies close to Syria's northern border with Turkey. There are no destroyed homes in Atmeh and the rebel-controlled village, which lies along the Syrian border with Turkey among hills covered with olive trees, was never shelled or bombed. Still, as they harvest their main source of income this year, the olive farmers are worried. For years, the government regulated the olive oil market and guaranteed low but secure prices for both olives and oil. Now, the war has shrunk the Atmeh farmers' reachable world to a small area void of government troops. "Merchants who used to buy our oil and olive products are not taking it any more," says Mohammad Kadur Hassan, 63, an olive farmer who owns several thousand olive trees. In an area where olives are abundant, the surplus has led to the collapse of already low prices. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1887b8923962e5dad8e9e3763afc1bbe Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 31 Jul 2015
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