Khaberni Jordan has seen important shifts in its economic policies since the 1990s, especially concerning trade liberalization and participation in related international agreements, including the agricultural sector directly. With rising global competition and increasing costs of production, shipping, and transportation, there emerged a need for direct government intervention to support agricultural exports and enable Jordanian products to efficiently access foreign markets.
In recent years, the Jordanian agricultural export support program has notably evolved, especially in covering shipping costs. A program was initiated to support 50% of air and sea shipping costs to ease logistics burdens on exporters and open new markets. At the beginning of 2025 in response to rising export costs and regional challenges, the council of ministers decided to support vegetable and fruit exports by covering 50% of the cost of air shipping and 25% of sea shipping costs, along with special support for lemon crops with a value of 50 dinars per ton up to a ceiling of 20,000 tons. In March of the same year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Royal Jordanian Airlines, and the Jordanian Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association signed an agreement worth 2 million Jordanian dinars to support shipping and external promotion operations, funded by the Agricultural Risk Management Fund of the Ministry of Agriculture. At the beginning of 2026, the decision to support air and sea shipping was extended after the program proved successful in increasing export volumes and opening new and unconventional markets.
Based on these results, there is a necessity to transform this support into a permanent national policy for various reasons. Economically, the agricultural sector faces rising water and energy costs, production and transportation inputs, competition with countries that provide extensive support to their farmers, price fluctuations, and the closing of some regional markets as occurred during the Coronavirus pandemic. Agricultural exports contribute to improving the balance of payments and supporting the national currency.
Socially and developmentally, the agricultural sector represents the main income source in most rural areas and marginalized regions, contributing to enhancing social stability by reducing poverty and unemployment, and curtailing migration from rural to urban areas. Regarding food security and sustainability, continued support helps maintain a strong local agricultural production base and boosts the national economy's capability to face regional and international crises.
International experiences underscore the importance of long-term agricultural policies, where the European Union provides direct support to farmers and payments on agricultural areas, in addition to mechanisms to protect them from market fluctuations. In the United States, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers production support programs, crop insurance, and promotion and export programs. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) also provides grants and concessional loans to support agricultural production and market access in developing countries.
Therefore, continuing support for agricultural exports requires formulating a permanent national policy that includes continuance in supporting air, sea, and land shipping, establishing seasonal support programs for surplus crops, developing cooling and storage chains and transportation, offering financial incentives tied to export contracts, supporting the transition towards high-value-added crops, utilizing modern technology, expanding the agricultural compensation umbrella for natural disasters, finding mechanisms to stabilize certain crop prices, supporting access to international quality certificates, developing laboratories for rapid testing, enhancing partnerships among relevant entities, and securing sustainable financing sources, including grants and international financing.
In conclusion
Supporting Jordanian agricultural exports represents a long-term investment in food security and economic and social stability. The experience in Jordan in recent years has shown that reducing shipping costs and stimulating exports yield tangible results in increasing exports and opening new markets. Transforming this support into a permanent national policy would make Jordanian agricultural products more competitive, stable, and capable of accessing global markets.
