'Demand for milk brings new life to dairy sector'

AMMAN — The competitive protection of local milk is “helping revive the cattle sector”, a meeting between the Ministry of Agriculture and cattle farm owners has heard.

Represented by the Cooperative Society for Cattle Owners and Milk Producers, the sector said that in the past two months, the demand for milk has been rising, bringing “new life” to the sector.

The sector said its yoghurt production experienced “some turbulence” a few months ago when local producers decided to raise prices, but an immediate boycott from citizens stopped the decision from being applied.

“The decision would have gone through, and would have included milk products as well, if the sector hadn’t been given competitive protection from the Ministry,” said Salameh Mawazeen, one of the milk producers at the meeting.

The government then prohibited the import of non-Jordanian milk powder, which Mawazeen said goes into many dairy products.

Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Shahahdeh said in a statement that the government is looking into setting more restrictions on the imports of cattle as well as various non-Jordanian dairy products to “further protect local products”.

He added that the ministry will also look into controlling the amount of dairy products needed locally so that the rest can be exported.

Representatives of the 700 cattle farms were “more than happy” with the government’s decision, although one remaining demand is to lower production taxes, Ministry Spokesperson Lawrence Majali told The Jordan Times over the phone.