‘Maan-based regional livestock market to start exporting in 2017’

AMMAN — The first regional livestock market will start importing and exporting in Maan Governorate next year, the Hashemite Fund for Badia Development (HFBD) announced on Monday.

The market is being established in Muhammadiyeh Village, which the government announced as a development zone last year.

“The project will qualify Jordan to be a regional and an international centre for the trade of livestock in accordance with international regulations,” said Sharifa Zein Bint Nasser, the chairperson of the HFBD’s board of trustees. 

“It will provide countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Turkey with livestock all year round,” she noted. 

Sharifa Zein made the remarks during an agreement signing between the HFBD and the Jordan Investment Commission (JIC) to facilitate channelling investments into the badia and building partnerships with the private sector and investment commissions.

“The imported livestock will undergo strict health monitoring from the Ministry of Agriculture and the World Organisation for Animal Health [OIE],” Sharifa Zein noted.

Built on a 1,500-dunum area, the regional centre will also be tasked with testing local and imported sheep for animal diseases and issuing certificates for healthy animals for exporting purposes.

The centre will be internationally approved by the OIE, which will also certify that the area hosting the centre is free of any animal diseases, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

Jordan’s bid to host the market was approved during the 33rd session of the regional conference for the Near East, which was held in Rome in May.

“Under the first phase, a total of 250 jobs will be created, going up to more than 1,000 job opportunities when the project’s third and final phase is completed next year,” Sharifa Zein said.

Underscoring that the market will not compete with local livestock traders, she stressed that they would be able to use the market to export their stock. 

“In addition, tribes living around the development area will have the priority in employment,” Sharifa Zein said, highlighting that the market seeks to improve living conditions in the Jordanian badia by attracting investments.

“The HFBD is the project’s main developer, while a foreign investor is investing JD16-JD20 million,” she added.

Meanwhile, JIC President Thabet Elwir said although the livestock market will be the core tenant at the development zone, there will also be major investments in fodder cultivation, treated natural fertilisers, breeding and re-export facilities, slaughterhouses and factories to prepare meat for domestic and international markets, a recycling plant, laboratories and large livestock yards.