Page 53 - IRANRptOct21

Iran’s date sales could top $1bn despite drought conditions
Rocketing tomato paste price bellwether for painful Iranian food inflation
Iran’s feed industry ‘driven into crisis that threatens country with food shortages’
Iran’s exports of dates could hit a value of $1bn a year by the end of the current Persian calendar year (March 20, 2022), Tasnim News Agency has reported, citing the head of the National Association of Iranian Dates (NAID).
Rashid Farokhi was reported as saying that despite the prolonged drought and low rainfall experienced by Iran during the 2021/2022 Persian year so far, annual dates production was expected to reach 1.2mn tonnes. Around 30% of the output would be exported, he added.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) has previously said that Iran exported over 60,000 tonnes of dates to 52 countries in the first four months of the current Persian year (March 20 - July 21). These exports earned $53.05mn. Shipments went to countries including Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, Qatar, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, the UK, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, China and Hungary.
Iraq was the biggest importer of Iranian dates at a value of $9.73mn during the four-month period. It was followed by Pakistan and Kazakhstan, at $7.65mn and $5.91mn, respectively.
Various types of dates are produced on 203,763 hectares of land in Iran. Globally, Iran is the second largest dates producer, in terms of production volume and acreage, and the fifth largest exporter of dates.
Iran continues to struggle with painfully high food inflation. The prices of two staples of Iranian households, tomato paste and rice, have lately climbed at a worrying pace.
The price of an 800-gram can of tomato paste—a product seen as a bellwether for overall food prices by many Iranians—has reached Iranian toman (IRT) 30,000 ($1.10), up 50% m/m, Tasnim News reported on September 6.
Iran’s official consumer price index annual inflation was reported on August 24 as 45.2%. Food inflation was at 58%, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI).
A kilogram of Iranian rice in the country currently exchanges hands at the wholesale price of IRT45,000 to 47,000 per kg, with imported rice sold at IRT25,000. Drought has hit domestic rice harvesting, down 18% y/y in the current Persian calendar year (started March 21). Strategic reserves and the market regulation of rice distribution help to curb the effects of lower production, but Iran also lately moved to repeal its ban on imports of rice from India, Pakistan and Thailand.
The officially listed price of eggs has also sharply increased m/m. The cost of a large carton of eggs has recently risen from IRT215,000 to IRT250,000.
Western sanctions, currency depreciation and drought have driven the Iranian feed industry to an unprecedented crisis, threatening the country with food shortages in the next few months, writes All About Feed.
The trade publication points out that the Iranian government keeps adhering to its price-constraining policy on the domestic livestock market, with the policy including purchasing chicken from all farmers at fixed prices and distributing feedstuff among farmers and feed mills at guaranteed prices. The second part of this policy is said to have not functioned well recently.
Mojtaba Aali, CEO of the National Union of Livestock Breeders, is cited as saying: “The feedstuff either does not reach farmers or reach farmers too late, forcing them to source feedstuff on the open market. When farmers begin buying grain on the open market, their costs skyrocket.” Numerous farmers have reportedly declared bankruptcy, with many others culling their animals,
53 IRAN Country Report October 2021 www.intellinews.com