Agriculture Ministry returns 400-tonne shipment of lemons

AMMAN — The Ministry of Agriculture on Saturday sent back a 400-tonne shipment of lemons from Dubai being brought into the Kingdom through the Omari border crossing, according to an official ministry source who preferred to remain anonymous.

Regarding the shipment, questions had been raised about the possible "tampering of the certificate of origin", which resulted in it being withdrawn from the markets. According to Assistant Secretary-General for Marketing at the Ministry of Agriculture Ayman Salti, the ministry re-exported the shipment because it "did not meet the Kingdom’s import conditions on top of lacking documents”.

The ministry source said that dealers in the central vegetable market confirmed, at the time, that while “most of the lemons in the central market are currently from China, the certificates of origin in Dubai were tampered with and the packages… entered as originating from South Africa”.

In a separate statement, the ministry stressed that imports "must have origins from which importing is permitted and all information shall be specified on the import licence, including the quantity and the border crossing through which the shipment is slated to enter".