Page 51 - IRANRptNov19

their products through NIN, meaning the network was helping to reduce rural unemployment. Jahromi was speaking on the sidelines of the “Achievements in Rural Infrastructure Development Event.”
Villages were being connected to NIN at a rate of 4,900 per year, with the connectivity established along with the provision of new broadband landline connections.
In August, it was announced that more than 108,000 schools in Iran were also now connected to NIN. Centralised lessons and streamed lessons were said to be reaching rural regions on the network.
NIN is not without its critics. The wider plan for the network has been mocked by Iranian expatriates and foreign media because of its supposed “Halal” nature, with content deemed unwholesome removed.
Though it has a relatively high rate of ‘non-connectivity’, Iran is one of the most tech-savvy countries in West Asia, with some two-thirds of the population now avid internet users.
9.1.6​ Agriculture sector news
Iranian farmers harvested 900,000 tonnes of pomegranates in the October harvest, according to the Iranian agriculture ministry as cited by ILNA.
Despite the seemingly high figure, Zahra Jalili Moghadam, an official at the ministry, said that the number was lower than the average 1mn tonnes harvested annually partly due to climate change and changing weather patterns.
Most Iranian pomegranate production is exported from Fars, Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan, Yazd, Markazi, Semnan and Lorestan provinces.
Jalili Moghaddam said pomegranate exports last year weighed 15,000 tonnes. The value of pomegranate exports in the previous Persian calendar year (ended March 20) was $15mn. Exports went to Russia, Iraq, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Germany.
Annually, Iran exports 15-20,000 tonnes per year as part of efforts to earn greater revenue from the highly prized “superfruit”, which is now known to be packed full of antioxidants.
Currently, an online retailer in Iran, Digikala, sells one kilogram of pomegranates for IRR130,000 (€1.04 at the free-market exchange rate).
Iran plans to import 3mn tonnes of wheat in the 2019/2020 Persian calendar year, the secretary general of the country's Federation of Food Industry Associations, Kaveh Zargaran, said in an October 23 presentation at a grains conference in Baku.
After launching a self-sufficiency drive in wheat in 2016, Iran reduced its imports of the commodity, particularly hitting Russian exporters which until then had reaped rewards from what was one of the largest markets for Russian wheat.
According to local media outlets, Zargaran said the wheat imports were being scheduled to meet Iran's domestic needs. Iranian officials were yet to say if state tenders would be called for the purchases.
Iran has a separate agreement with Russia and Kazakhstan on the supply of wheat via the Caspian Sea for private sector millers. The millers are forbidden from using Iranian wheat for flour exports.
St Petersburg's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary
51​ IRAN Country Report​ November 2019 www.intellinews.com