Agriculture Ministry refutes allegations of ‘livestock import monopoly’

AMMAN — The Ministry of Agriculture has refuted claims by livestock traders and importers that it has granted only one company a licence to import sheep from Romania and Australia.

"There is no monopoly on the import of livestock, or granting a single, specific company licences to import sheep from Romania and Australia,” Mahmoud Hanatleh, director of the livestock directorate at the ministry, said in a statement.

He added that a new mechanism was recently agreed upon during a meeting with livestock stakeholders to regulate the import of livestock and meat, with the aim of benefitting Jordanian importers and traders.

 The new mechanism, which replaces the import of fresh, chilled meat with the import of live livestock, was described as “benefitting citizens, the livestock sector and a number of related sectors”.

 The ministry noted that storing the livestock in pens to be slaughtered in local slaughterhouses presents consumers with fresher meat, increases livestock traders’ profits and activates more manpower in the labour sector.

In a recent statement sent to the Prime Ministry, the Livestock Traders and Importers Association said that the new mechanism has "negatively affected about 10,000 small-scale livestock farmers on such a huge scale that they cannot follow it, given that they do not own slaughterhouses.”

The association alleged that one company was “granted a year-round import licence with unlimited import quantities on the pretext that it possesses a slaughterhouse, despite several others having slaughterhouses as well”. 

However, Hanatleh stressed that more than 20 companies acquired licences last year, adding that “everyone who applied for a licence and met the conditions set for import was granted a licence”.

 The director mentioned that the Animal Health Committee, which was formed to discuss the drafting and implementation of the new mechanism, is made up of 11 members, “only a third of whom are from the ministry, with the rest representing the concerned professional unions”.

Jordan University of Science and Technology is also part of the committee, with its Agricultural Faculty entrusted with the task of studying import licences, livestock health conditions and trade agreements, as well as ensuring that the countries Jordan imports from are committed to the conditions of halal slaughter and animal safety.