Regional unrest casts gloomy shadow on Jordan's agricultural exports

Jordan’s agricultural sector has been unable to sell its good outside of the kingdom because of the increase in security in the country and the unrest in neighbouring countries.

Speaking to the Anadolu Agency yesterday, the president of the Jordanian Farmers’ Association, Oudeh Al-Rawashda, said that the sector faces difficulties in marketing its products where there is a surplus in production while exports have declined because of the unrest in Syria and Iraq.

Al-Rawashdeh said there was an insufficient number of shipping trucks available to transport agricultural exports, adding that the cost of transporting the good had risen significantly as truck drivers were forced to go through Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to reach Iraq.

The Jordanian government needs to make more effort to solve the problem in order to support the agricultural sector and protect it from the consequences of incurring significant losses during the current season, he stressed.

The majority of Jordan’s vegetable exports are sold to Gulf countries while exports destined to Europe that used to pass through Syria stopped after Syrian opposition groups took control of the Nasib border crossing between Syria and Jordan.

In its latest report, the Central Bank of Jordan said that Jordanian vegetables exports fell by 13.8 per cent in the first two months of this year compared to the same period last year. It attributed this to the difficult security situation in the region in general and in Iraq and Syria in particular.