Cotton is the chief cash crop and was Syria's leading export until the mid-1970s. Other leading crops include vegetables, citrus fruits, olives, tobacco, and sugar beets. Sheep and goats are grazed in many areas. In the driest environments nomadism is common, though this way of life is declining and is practiced by very few Syrians today. In the mid-1960s the government began a policy of rapid industrialization, especially in the areas of iron and steel and other heavy industries.
Factories now turn out a wide range of products, including tractors and television sets.
Rapid industrial growth has encouraged many Syrians to move to cities. Syria is not a major petroleum producer by Middle East standards. Nevertheless, petroleum accounts for some 40 percent of total exports, and a petrochemical industry has developed around the main refineries. Syria also has large phosphate deposits, which are used in its growing fertilizer industry. Syrian development has given a high priority to building a good transportation system, the absence of which hindered the country's economic growth in the past.