Officials upbeat over 35% rise in sheep exports

AMMAN — Sheep exports are expected to recover this year, an official said on Sunday, citing figures indicating a 35 per cent increase since the start of the year.

Lower demand from Gulf Arab countries and Saudi Arabia in particular caused the drop in Jordan’s exports of live sheep in 2016, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, which said that the decrease caused prices to plummet locally.

But efforts targeting the Gulf market and recovering it as a main destination for sheep exports are paying off, according to the ministry’s spokesperson, Nimer Haddadin, who said that 1,000 head of live sheep are being exported daily to Gulf countries since the year started.

“The Kingdom exported 24,500 head of live sheep to the Gulf during January, which is a 35 per cent increase compared to the same period last year,” Haddadin told The Jordan Times.

The official underscored that imports of local sheep are expected to increase this year, noting that Minister of Agriculture Khaled Hneifat is heading a delegation to the UAE to discuss ways to increase the country’s exports of sheep, as well as agricultural produce to the Gulf country.

Opening new markets and also retrieving lost ones for the country’s exports of fruit, vegetables and live sheep are among the ministry’s top challenges, Hneifat told reporters during a recent meeting.

He said the Kingdom’s agricultural sector is suffering due to regional conflicts and instability, noting that Jordan has lost the Syrian and Iraqi markets, whether as major exporting destinations for animal and food products or as transit points for exports to Europe and the Gulf.

Among plans to increase exports of live sheep is also opening the markets of Israel and the West Bank, expected within a month, according to the ministry, which indicated that a Saudi delegation is also scheduled to visit the Kingdom to discuss increasing exports of local sheep.

Results of a livestock census conducted by the Department of Statistics (DoS) in 2016 indicate that the number of sheep and goats in Jordan rose by 13.8 per cent compared to 2015.

The number of sheep increased from 2.846 million to 3.261 million, while the number of goats rose from 939,000 to 1.044 million, according to DoS.