King visits Irbid grain silos, calls for maintaining strategic food reserves in Kingdom

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday called for maintaining strategic food reserves in the Kingdom and ensuring all basic commodities are available to citizens, especially under the current extraordinary conditions.

During a visit to the grain silos in Irbid affiliated with the Jordan Silos and Supply General Company, King Abdullah stressed the importance of providing northern governorates, especially Irbid, with all their needs, according to a Royal Court statement.

His Majesty said he would visit food warehouses to check on available reserves of all commodities.

During the visit, the King was briefed by Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tareq Hammouri on Jordan’s strategic food reserves, which the minister said are sufficient, within safe levels and monitored on a daily basis.

According to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, available wheat and barley stocks are 1.833 million tonnes, covering the country's needs for more than one year.

His Majesty was also briefed on the storage capacity of the northern region silos, available quantities of wheat and barley and mechanisms of supplying mills to ensure bakeries have easy access to flour.

The capacity of the northern region’s silos complex is estimated at 140,000 tonnes of wheat and barley. Current quantities stand at 122,000 tonnes — 95,000 tonnes of wheat and 27,000 tonnes of barley.

The silos supply wheat and barley to all mills in Irbid, Mafraq, Jerash and Ajloun.