‘Gov’t seeking Turkish investments in Jordan Valley’

AMMAN — Plans are under way to attract Turkish agricultural companies to invest in and cultivate lands in the Jordan Valley, an official said on Tuesday.

Turkish agricultural companies are interested in growing certain crops in the Jordan Valley, according to Agriculture Ministry Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin, who noted that the companies will be exporting their products to foreign markets.

Haddadin highlighted that officials are still discussing the prospects of agricultural cooperation between the two countries, underscoring that Minister of Agriculture Khaled Hneifat and Turkish Ambassador to Jordan Murat Karagoz met on Tuesday.

Hneifat and Karagoz also discussed cooperation in exporting local fruit and vegetables, according to Haddadin.

“There are also plans to attract Turkish companies to export Jordan’s fruit and vegetables from Turkey to Europe via Haifa port,” he told The Jordan Times.

The plan seeks to find new marketing portals for the Kingdom’s fruit and vegetables in light of the ongoing closure of the country’s borders with Syria and Iraq, which used to consume nearly two-thirds Jordan’s vegetable produce.

The Karameh-Tureibil crossing on the border between Jordan and Iraq, the gateway for Jordanian produce to reach Iraqi and European markets, was closed in the summer of 2015.

Also in 2015, Jordan closed the Jaber border crossing with Syria for security reasons, while Ramtha, the other border crossing with the war-torn country, has been closed for nearly five years.

Hneifat and Karagoz discussed dispatching rangers from the ministry’s Forestry Department to Turkey to receive training at a Turkish forestry institute, according to a statement from the ministry.