AMMAN: Last Wednesday, Jordan decided to suspend the import of potatoes from Egypt due to them allegedly being infected with brown rot, as reported by the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture of Jordan, Nimer Haddadin. He said in a statement for “New Arab” that Jordan usually adopts such measures in the event of the appearance of diseases or rot in the country’s food imports in order to preserve the safety of consumers.
He added: “Jordan’s consumption of potatoes amounts to about 300 tonnes per day, a percentage of which have to be imported from abroad during some months due to an insufficient domestic production,” noting that the next winter potato crops will be ready on 20 January, thus increasing the volumes available in the market and making up for the shortfall that will result from the cessation of imports from Egypt.
Haddadin also stated that “after the domestic production is ready, potato imports stop to protect domestic producers, especially given the decline of exports to some markets due to the closing of the border with Syria and Iraq.”
He confirmed that the price of potatoes and other vegetables has actually increased over the past few months because of the impact of the weather; the crop damage and lack of volumes supplied to the local market resulted in prices exceeding $ 1.3 per kilo.
