Razan Zuayter, the co-founding member of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, directed a question to the Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Al-Shehadeh about the reasons that led Jordan to import 80% of its food from abroad.

She made the question during her participation in the meetings of the Economic and Social Council (ESC) on Sep.24th, 2019 to discuss its second State of the Country Report.

Zuayter said during her intervention in the sessions that discuss key sectors such as agriculture and water, this decline in food policies should be within the list of priorities of the meetings. She stressed the need for these meetings to reflect strategic solutions to this serious dilemma.  Amman Chamber of Commerce has declared that Jordan imports 80% of its food from abroad, at an annual cost of about 4 billion dollars, at a size of 4 million tons.

In a related framework, Zuayter expressed her regret over a number of civil society institutions participating in the meetings, pointing out that they do not express real problems in the discussions. She said she was surprised at the position of some of them, who only thanked the government for its efforts in the agricultural sector.

The APN co-founding member asked about some of the observations made and submitted by APN on the previous report of the Council, but was not taken into consideration. At the same, she thanked the President of the Council, Mustafa Hamarneh, for adopting other observations.  Among the fundamental observations submitted by APN and not approved by the ESC is the importance of investing in rain-fed agriculture in Jordan, especially in light of its lack of water.

A further observation included emphasis on the need to include indicators in the report on Jordan's grain production which represents only 2% of consumption. the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of the Environment, Ibrahim Al-Shehadeh, valued and voiced approval of APN's interventions.

The State of the Country Report is the most important strategic report issued by the Jordanian Economic and Social Council, which is considered a major consulting institution serving the country’s various sectors.