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Ammon News -

Minister of Agriculture Khaled Hanifat Thursday took part in a ministerial meeting of the International Council of Dates in Saudi Arabia, which aims at upgrading production, marketing, manufacturing, promotion and institutional organization through a special platform that brings together countries that produce and import dates.

According to a ministry statement, the minister's participation aimed at promoting the date palm industry in the Kingdom, which is one of the most promising crops of high economic value, in addition to promoting the cultivation of distinctive varieties of dates, namely Majhool, which Jordan is famous for.

On the sidelines of the meeting, the minister met with the ministers of agriculture in the Gulf countries to discuss facilitating procedures for Jordanian agricultural exports.

A meeting with the Saudi Minister of Agriculture Abdul Rahman al-Fadhli tackled cooperation and the possibility of leveraging the Saudi Crown Prince's afforestation initiative to establish nurseries to produce forest seedlings in different regions and provide support to plant trees in desert areas.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of waiving the tomato yellow leaf curl virus test for tomato and pepper exports and instead adopting their phytosanitary certificates, as well as other obstacles facing the export of live sheep.

The two officials stressed the need for coordination, joint cooperation and exchange of expertise in the field of food security and other agricultural fields, and cutting red-tape to increase the trade exchange.

A separate meeting with the Qatari Minister of Municipality and Environment Abdulla bin Turki tackled cooperation and overcoming obstacles for Jordanian agricultural exports to Qatar by land.

The minister and his Omani counterpart Saud al-Habsi discussed prospects of joint cooperation and means to boost the exchange of agricultural commodities, according to the two countries' comparative advantage.