Agricultural Production and Trade in Jordan
The Middle East is a region that relies heavily on agricultural imports due to its scarce water resources and desert climate. At the same time, some of its nations are extremely wealthy due to the large amount of natural petroleum reserves under their soil. Since 2000, the United States and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan share a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which represents the first FTA between the US and an Arab nation. This article explores the Jordanian economy and its agricultural trade.
Agricultural Production and Trade in Jordan
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is one of the most stable countries in the Middle East region and has a GDP of approximately US$80 billion. Due its political stability and good governance, Jordan has enjoyed over 2.0% annual growth for the last several years. At the same time, it is important to mention that Jordan, unlike some of its regional neighbors, does not have great oil reserves upon which to rely economically. Therefore, two-thirds (66.0%) of Jordan’s economy is devoted to the services industry. At the same time, even though Jordan suffers from a severe lack of water resources, agriculture represents a substantial 4.2% of the national economy. Jordan’s agricultural production is very much typical of its climate and geography, being composed mainly of citrus fruits, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives.
Unsurprisingly, Jordan relies on substantial amounts of agricultural imports to meet the demand for both food and animal feed within its domestic market. Some of the main agricultural products imported by Jordan are commodities such as wheat, barley, corn, and rice. For the 2016/17 year, wheat consumption within Jordan is estimated to reach 1.3 million metric tons, while domestic barley demand should reach 925.000 metric tons. Meanwhile, due to a lack of water, the domestic wheat production in Jordan accounts for approximately 20.000 metric tons yearly. Similarly, yearly corn production in Jordan accounts for less than 10.000 metric tons for a total domestic demand of approximately 655.000 tons of corn. Therefore, most of these agricultural commodities are imported from international markets.
In the case of wheat, the main supplier is by far Romania, who sold more than 830.000 metric tons to Jordan during 2015/16. This amount was followed by Russia, who sold approximately 394.000 metric tons of wheat into the Jordanian market during the same time. In terms of corn, Jordan is expected to import 680.000 metric tons during 2016/17. For the 2015/16 season, the most important corn suppliers to the Jordanian market were Argentina and Brazil, yielding 554.000 and 200.000 metric tons respectively. Finally, the barley market in Jordan relies exclusively on imports because of its near zero level of domestic production. During 2015/16, Jordan imported some 235.000 metric tons of barley from Romania, 231.000 from France, and 205.000 metric tons from Russia.
The only major agricultural commodity imported into Jordan that comes mainly from the US is rice. During the 2015/16, some 96.000 metric tons of rice were imported from the US into Jordan. The amount of imported rice is expected to reach 100.000 metric tons in 2016/17. The second largest rice importer into Jordan is India, with approximately 50.000 metric tons yearly.