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Ammon News - The Jordanian food industries sector is able to meet the local market's needs and double its exports that is currently reaching to 70 countries, the Jordan Chamber of Industry's (JCI) representative of food, catering, agricultural, and livestock industries sector, "Mohammad Walid" Al-Jitan, said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the Jordan News Agency "Petra", Al-Jitan stressed that the Kingdom has achieved self-sufficiency in some types of food commodities such as baked goods, sweets, dairy, eggs and poultry, which shows the competitiveness and quality of Jordanian products, compared to other imported ones.

"The share of food manufactured in the Kingdom within the local market amounts to about 52 percent of the country's total needs, which makes the food industry sector an important contributor to achieving food security," he added.

The government, he said, has set the industrial sector among its top priorities at it economic plan for the years 2021-2023, by working to increase national exports of goods and services, encouraging food manufacturing, providing investment incentives, increasing the competitiveness of products locally and abroad, as well as establishing a new fund to support national industries.

Al-Jitan highlighted that the production of the food sector approximately reaches 23% of the Kingdom's total industrial output, at a value of about JD4 billion annually, while the sector's value added is about 43 percent of the existing production in the industrial sector.

He also indicated that the food industry sector constitutes around 15 percent of the total number of industrial establishments in the Kingdom, with a cumulative number reaching 2,645, providing more than 50,000 job opportunities, with fixed assets approximately standing at JD2 billion.

(Petra)