Farmers union threatens halt of trade over sampling procedure

AMMAN — Traders and exporters of vegetables and fruits have threatened to halt all exports and imports until the Ministry of Agriculture “revises its mechanisms for sampling produce”.

President of the Jordanian Farmers Union Mahmoud Oran told The Jordan Times that the mechanisms deployed by the ministry to examine the samples “negatively affect export operations and causes losses to the sector”.

He said that the ministry’s choice of samples, refrigeration requirements and waiting period for laboratory tests are “inefficient mechanisms whose failure comes at the expense of the merchant”.

In the case of exporters, the sector’s complaint, as articulated by union member Mahmoud Naser, is that “despite the produce coming from ministry-monitored local markets, exporters pay for expensive produce laboratory tests only to further bear the expenses of dumping bad produce”.

 “How is it our responsibility that the produce is bad? If the ministry has failed to develop an effective examination that ensures the produce in local markets is up to standards in the first place, why are we the ones being harmed?” he said.

President of the Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association Saadi Hammad said: “The fact that the ministry resorts to this method with exporters and importers is the greatest evidence of their inability to monitor the spraying of pesticides in cultivated land throughout the agriculture directorates.”

“Thus, their choice is to crack down on the weakest link of the chain: The exporter who has already paid for a bad shipment, a laboratory test and dumping costs,” he added.

He pointed out that, in the case of importers, samples are being taken for examination from the refrigerator door, which is the “weakest” location. The shipment “should be examined in full” before it is written off as inconsumable, he said. 

In response to these claims, Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Shahahdeh said in a statement that the ministry “will not tolerate the violation of citizens' rights to health and food security” and that “all measures taken in the process of sampling are in line with international standards for agricultural product import and export to domestic and foreign markets”.

The statement also said that the ministry has designated agricultural fields that are licensed and monitored, and operate according to the requirements of the destination country.

The minister concluded: “We have granted about 15 companies a ‘Golden Merchant’ card, which allows them to immediately import and export their shipments after just one sample, because they have shown commitment to the instructions and conditions of international import and export standards.''