Jordan seeks to lift ban on vegetables' exporting to UAE

Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture is still negotiating with officials in UAE to lift the ban on its vegetables and fruits’ products. Sources told “Arab Today” that, pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits are the cause of the delay. The agriculture ministry is making directorates’ labs take random samples for testing, taking extra measures as awareness campaigns for farmers on how to use agricultural pesticides, and it will remove some pesticides with long term effects from of the markets.

UAE stopped importing vegetables and fruits from Jordan because of the high concentration of pesticides in them. This decision came from Emirati Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment, preventing the importing of several crops to UAE like, zucchini, chili, cabbage, eggplant, beans, flower and lettuce.

Captain of Jordanian Vegetable and Fruit Traders, Saadi Abu Hammad, said that the union and some representatives of agriculture sectors met with agriculture minister, Khaled Al Hanifat, and agreed to form an official delegation to UAE to know the real reasons behind such decision, adding that, the implementation of such decision will be a disaster, because UAE daily imports 1000 tons of vegetables and fruits, which makes it the second largest agriculture products’ market after Saudi Arabia.

He considered the rumors about using pesticides are shameful, stressing that, Jordanian farmers only use approved pesticides that are compatible with known standers.

Chairman of Jordan Valley Farmers Association, Adnan Khaddam told “Arab Today” that he is concerned that, UAE will implement this decision, which will be a great hit to the agriculture sector, adding that, the Jordanian government should exert effort to stop this decision, as it will badly affect farmers’ reputation and agriculture products in the region. He demanded supervision over pesticides to study their effects on corps, adding that Jordan only deals with Gulf agricultural markets, so this problem needs to be fixed soon. On the other hand, Jordan exported 600 tons of fruits and vegetables to UAE last year.