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9.2.4 Agricultural corporate news
Bank Kesharvarzi provides loan to entrepreneurs tapping into Iran’s dairy farming expansion with 2,000 cow farm
Iran’s Bank Kesharvarzi (Agriculture Bank) is providing a loan of Iranian rial (IRR) 300bn ($1.1mn at the unofficial rate, $7.1mn at the government rate) to agro-industrial company Saba Pegah Lorestan for construction of a 2,000-cow dairy farm in the western Lorestan province in the Zagros mountains, IBENA has reported.
Iran’s dairy industry has seen significant expansion in recent years. It now even runs operations in Iraq and, thanks to a recent deal, Armenia. Despite its mostly arid climate, Iran is the most significant milk producer in Western Asia after Turkey. It has industrial-sized dairy farms spread the length and breadth of the country.
Saba Pegah Lorestan’s dairy farm is expected to become one of the most modern industrial farm entities in Iran. It covers an area of more than 41,000 square metres.
Ali Ansari-pour, CEO of Saba Pegah Lorestan, said that at full capacity the farm would produce more than 25,000 tonnes of milk and 350 tonnes of red meat per year.
He added: "This farm is one of the most modern farms in the country and to increase the welfare and health of livestock and also increase the quality and quantity of milk produced, a ‘free-range’ method of farming has been introduced.”
Milk and other dairy products worth $325.9mn were exported from the Islamic Republic during the first nine months of the previous Persian calendar year (March 21-December 21, 2019), according to Abdolmehdi Bakhshandeh, Deputy Agriculture Minister for Planning and Economic Affairs. The available data also showed that in the entirety of that year (ended March 21, 2020), Iran produced around 10mn tonnes of milk.
9.2.5 Retail corporate news
Iran’s answer to Amazon Digikala expands to Yazd
Iran’s biggest online retailer DigiKala, sometimes referred to as the “Iranian Amazon”, has announced that it is expanding into another region of the country, with a new depot opened in the central city of Yazd, ICTNA reported on April 25.
DigiKala has also dovetailed with an “online shopping week” promoted by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by launching a “DigiKala for all Iran” campaign. The company said: “DigiKala intends to introduce its services to the residents of each province of Iran every week.” The project will roll out a series of expansions, starting with the provinces Yazd, Kerman, Golestan, and Semnan. Free shipping is presently available in Yazd.
In May 2020, Digikala announced it was investing in digital retailer of clothing Komodaa. As part of the deal, Komodaa uses Digikala’s infrastructure, logistics, payment services and marketing department.
Previously, in 2018, Digikala expanded its offer to food sales after acquiring an online supermarket.
The Mohammadi twins who founded DigiKala are photography buffs who were inspired to launch their business after saving a thousand dollars to buy an SLR camera that they found it difficult to obtain in Iran.
“We spent all our money on that camera,” Hamid Mohammadi told Forbes in January 2015. “That’s how the idea came about. We wanted a website with lots of information and reviews for consumer electronics, and also a good shopping experience, beyond information and reviews. The idea was a
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