AMMAN — Representatives of the food
sector in Jordan expressed their optimism about the coming days especially that
the recent governmental measures have helped improve the sector's performance.
اضافة اعلان
On the other hand, traders appealed
for the abolition of taxes and customs on goods and foodstuffs without
exception, in addition to enhancing the Kingdom's stock of basic commodities to
help deal with any fluctuations in global markets and signing
free trade agreements with countries like Turkey, especially that the price of commodities
continues to rise in light of rising oil prices and shipping costs.
President of the
Jordan Chamber of Commerce, Nael Kabariti, told
Jordan News that "the
current customs tariffs which are exceptionally high affect prices and charges
of shipping which reflects directly on the customers and the prices of
goods."
Kabariti stressed the need to take
quick measures related to reducing customs fees and postponing taxes paid in
advance on merchandise bound to Jordan, in addition to finding alternatives through
air cargo over sea cargo for some goods that are imported at a lower
cost."
From his side, Khalil Haj Tawfik,
head of Amman Chamber of Commerce, told
Jordan News that "we
should be aware that people are affected from some economic decisions just as
the merchants; people might not be able to buy their needs due to high
costs."
Tawfik explained that "we are
all under the same umbrella; everyone is just as affected as the other; when
the merchant suffers, people suffer too. We all have to work together because
we cannot handle any more losses especially that we keep on repeating the same
mistakes every time."
Fares Al-Fares, a food merchant,
told
Jordan News that “before the pandemic, I used to get my
goods from abroad at a lesser cost and that means that I can sell them to
people at reasonable prices. Nowadays, I suffer from high shipping costs
therefore I have to raise my prices."
"Government should support us,
by abolishing high taxes or at least reducing them, I cannot deny that our
conditions are better nowadays, but at the same time, our losses throughout
last two years were too high and we need to work hard to offset some of our
losses. There is no time for more losses or we will be in a big trouble," Fares
added.
On another hand, Abd Al Elah Al
Hamawi, president of the Bakery Owners Association told
Jordan News that
"despite everything that has happened and despite our great losses, we are
still optimistic that the coming days are better."
Hamawi explained that tourists used
to come and buy different type of Arabic bread in large quantities, and this
used to enhance our sales and help us in increasing our profits but due to the
pandemic the numbers of tourists had dramatically dropped.
"I can say that the demand on
bread has decreased between 30-40 percent, and this is a significant loss,"
he said, adding that "we cannot anticipate what the other repercussions
the pandemic will have on the sector, but still I am optimistic that tomorrow
is a better day."
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