Syria has played an important and prominent role in the industrial progress for a long time because of the important geographical location and its mediation between the three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, where the Syrian people were able to see the different nations, benefit and develop them.
Major industries include; petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate rock mining, cement, oil seeds crushing and car assembly.
Syria has produced cotton since ancient times, and its cultivation increased in importance in the 1950s and 1960s.
Almost all the cotton was grown on irrigated land, largely in the area northeast of Aleppo.
The cotton was handpicked, although mechanical pickers were tried in the 1970s in an attempt to hold down rising labor costs.