AMMAN —
Ministry of Agriculture spokesperson Lawrence
Majali said on Wednesday that the ministry is monitoring the health status of animals
in several countries, through the Department's Animal Health Committee, as it
considers importing red meat from countries other than the traditional exporters
in order to cover the local market needs.
اضافة اعلان
The meat will be imported from Djibouti, Pakistan, Russia, and
Ukraine, once the quality of the meat in these countries is verified, Majali said,
stressing that the ministry seeks to diversify the sources of meat, and offer consumers
higher quality at competitive prices.
Local meat covers 30 to 40 percent of Jordan's consumer needs,
so the Ministry of Agriculture is trying to diversify markets to make up for of
60 percent more needed for domestic consumption.
The president of the Consumer Protection Society,
Mohamed Obeidat, said that this decision would provide the local market with different
types of red meat and that this diversity will break the monopoly of some
price-controlling traders who sell meat at very high prices without oversight
by the relevant regulators.
Farmer Zaid Al-Dabobi said that the
government uses the same
justifications every time it wants the import meat, and that farmers incur
significant losses.
“There have been experiments in importing Somali, Georgian and other red meat,
and farmers have been the victims,” said Zaid, adding that the price difference
between imported and local meat is about JD1, and the profit is made by the
merchant and the government.
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