According to the Vice President of the Jordan Exporters and Producers Society for Fruits and Vegetables, Zuhair Jweihan, no trucks laden with commercial quantities of Jordanian fruits and vegetables have entered Syria since the reopening of the border crossing between the Syria and Jordan in mid-October 2018.
“Unfortunately, we did not benefit at all from the reopening of the Jaber/Nasib border crossing between Jordan and Syria... We sent a refrigerated truck laden with some fruits and vegetables to Syria when the borders were reopened as a gift and that was the only truck to enter,” Jweihan told The Jordan Times.
There are no demands at all by Syrian traders and there are “other obstacles” that Jordanian produce exporters face when trying to export to Syria, he said, adding that these obstacles and the current conditions are negatively affecting Jordanian farmers and exporters alike.
“Jordan allowed Syrian agricultural produce to enter the Jordanian market and since the border reopening, scores of Syrian trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables such as onions and apples have entered Jordan, which is unfair to us,” he said.
Before 2011, Jordan’s produce exports to Syria exceeded 200,000 tonnes per year, according to Jweihan. Jordan also exported more than 60,000 tonnes of produce to Russia, eastern European countries and Turkey via Syria before the border closure.
In April 2015, Jordan closed the Jaber border crossing with Syria for security reasons. Jordan Valley Farmers Union President Adnan Khaddam also said that not a single kilogramme of Jordanian fruit or vegetables has been exported to Syria.
Currently, no Syrian fruits and vegetables are allowed entry into Jordanian markets, he said, but the problem is that Syrian trucks enter Jordan and transport their agricultural produce to other countries via Jordan.