Technical mission to Palestine from June 26 to 30, 2022

The delegation of French experts included Guilherme Martins (Research Engineer at ISVV’s oenological research unit), Christine Pecastaingts (Director of Interco) and Mohamed Najim (Professor at Bordeaux University).

Program summary:

Sunday June 26: Arrival in Palestine. Day dedicated to program modifications and confirmations (exchanges with speakers at Tuesday’s conference, confirmation of the various meetings scheduled for the following day with Palestinian winegrowers). Meeting with Prof. Hanna Abdel Nour, who presented the mission program.

Monday June 27: Debriefing meeting at the Golden Taybeh Hotel with Mr. El Khoury (winegrower and brewer, owner of the hotel), who then accompanied us to three Palestinian winegrowers for technical visits. This was a key day in the mission to support the winegrowers.

The evening was devoted to a dinner at the Hotel Golden in Taybeh, where we tasted more Palestinian wines, presented Bordeaux wines, French cheeses and Moroccan wines. During this informal evening, we deepened our understanding of the problems facing Palestinian winegrowers and enriched the list of areas in which Bordeaux and Aquitaine can support these winegrowers.

Tuesday June 28: Workshop on “Professional training to promote local produce in Palestine”. The aim of this workshop was to present to Palestinian colleagues and professionals the training courses available in France and Morocco, and the regulations in place to protect local produce.

Wednesday June 29: Preparatory meeting with the Minister of Higher Education and Research. The meeting with the Minister lasted almost an hour. Then off to Jerusalem for an update at the consulate.

Thursday June 30: Review meeting of mission members and progress on the technical audit of the Palestinian wine industry. Return flight to France.

In August 2022, the final report of the technical audit of the Palestinian wine industry was sent to the Palestinian authorities.