Since the beginning of the pandemic,
His Majesty King Abdullah has been personally calling for efforts towards food security and
enhancing self-reliance, as he realized that the post-pandemic world will be completely
different than the one before, so what did the government do in this regard?
اضافة اعلان
First of all, it must be said that the Ministry of Industry,
Trade, and Supply has, since the first months of the
pandemic, implemented
Royal directives in this regard, by enhancing the Kingdom’s strategic stockpile
of wheat, to cover the Kingdom’s need of the commodity for some 14 months
ahead.
Unfortunately, the rest of the commodities remained subject
to supply and demand mechanisms in the market, with large amounts held by the
private sector and bought under global prices, but without being contracted
for, which means that these quantities remained held by importers, and if the
government wanted additional quantities of these basic commodities (rice,
sugar, corn, oil, and others) it would have to buy them through contracts under
the new prices. Official bodies don’t even have warehouses to store additional
quantities, with the exception of warehouses owned by indebted institutions
where some goods can be stored. As for strategic stockpiling for emergencies,
the government does not have that, unlike the private sector, which has
invested in this qualitative and strategic investment.
A few days ago, we were introduced, along with some
officials from both sectors, to one of the refrigerated storage projects in
Jordan, which constitutes a milestone in terms of enhancing food security and
the provision of basic commodities under various circumstances.
Investing in refrigerated and other forms of storage is the
new form of food security investment, as it is the fundamental guarantor of a
safe supply of goods under the various circumstances, in addition to being able
to hold the surplus of locally produced goods, many of which would be lost
without proper storage, such as agricultural products that are sold below their
costs during some seasons. Hence, storage protects both producers and
consumers.
Investing in refrigerated storage is an effective
precautionary measure to provide goods at reasonable prices and prevent
seasonal price fluctuations, in addition to mitigating the repercussions of the
madness of global prices, and their consequences for the public. Today in
Jordan some sectors produce quantities that exceed the local market’s needs,
such as the sectors of poultry and some agricultural products, hence, if there
are no spaces equipped for storing the surplus, it will be lost in the market.
The state can even enable the private sector to stockpile
strategic imports of foodstuff and raw materials, such as grains and the various
food production necessities in quantities that would protect the country from price
fluctuations and shortages, hence the heated race by wealthy nations across the
world to stockpile basic commodities, particularly in China, Europe, and the
US.
In Jordan, investment in the refrigerated storage sector is
limited, and yet successful on the regional level. There are also expansion
obstacles in the investment incentives law, as it bans investors in this sector
from leasing the project, which contradicts the main objective of the strategic
project’s concept, because if the investor wanted to build refrigerated
warehouses under the investment law they may only be utilized for their
personal use, without being able to lease them for others to use for storage,
at least not without being subject to hefty fines for violating the investment
incentives law, which is unreasonable, because no personal use can cover the
costs of refrigerated warehouses with a capacity of thousands of tons of
various goods.
Time is going by and there’s panic in global markets and
severe demand for storage of basic commodities in major countries. Jordan
cannot sit and wait to see what happens in the markets, it must move ahead, as
the madness of prices has become alarming, and shortages of some commodities
are manifesting. Hence, the government must hurry to facilitate refrigerated
storage operations, as well as other forms of storage, by granting it the
necessary facilitations and exemptions for this stage in particular, in order
to secure the country’s needs of basic commodities, as well as other needs for
both producers and consumers.
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