Truck traffic to Syria hit hard by unrest

Abu Dhabi :Jordan has suffered a 20 per cent drop in truck movement across the Syrian border due to the ongoing unrest there, a senior official has said.

Galeb Sarayrah, director-general of Jordan's Customs Department, told Gulf News that the turmoil has affected the flow of goods from Europe and Turkey to Syria and the GCC.

"Due to the state of turbulence in Syria, the Syrian security authorities (spend a long time) inspecting shipments across the Syrian borders which delays many trucks, causing very long queues on the borders," Sarayrah said.

Mohammad Al Da'ood, president of the Jordanian Truck Owners Association, said there was a slight improvement last month as truck movements increased 11 per cent over the same period of 2010.

New route

"Truck drivers and owners are having many difficulties because of the instability and unsecured conditions," said Al Da'ood.

"We are trying to solve these challenges by hiring 40 Syrian trucks on a daily basis to carry Jordanian vegetables and fruits directly from the Jordan Valley farms to the Syrian border," he said.

The number of Jordanian trucks carrying vegetables to Syria has been 70 to 80 per day since the beginning of the unrest in March last year, down from 110 a day.

Permission

Jordan has also approached the Iraqi government for permission to let Jordanian trucks carry goods to Turkey and Europe via Iraq as an alternative transit route, said Sarayrah.

He said the Jordanian government has not yet received a response from the Iraqi authorities.

Al Da'ood said the primary importance of Syria for the Jordanian economy is in terms of transit.