Page 54 - IRANRptNov21

9.1.7 Healthcare sector news
Iranian insurers call for government help as coronavirus payout pressure mounts
The Iranian Insurers’ Organisation—an industry lobby group—has requested financial support from Iran’s government as it contends with the country’s growing death toll from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to Donyaye Eqtesad.
Insurance companies, call centres and secondary agents in offices around the country suspended much of their work given closure notices issued by the government as the outbreak worsened, but following their return to operation they have found themselves buckling under the weight of applications and payouts.
Some 400,000 people are employed in the insurance sector in Iran, a country of 83mn. The industry is now facing a perfect storm of policy auto-renewals together with payouts, despite not being able to raise the base prices of policies.
The medical and life insurance segments have reportedly taken the biggest hits in recent days, with huge payouts becoming due.
Also, unemployment benefit, which is backed by insurance, has skyrocketed in recent weeks, with some 600,000 people officially laid off as a consequence of the economic effects of the pandemic in Iran. Earlier, as part of preparations to deal with the outbreak, insurance companies were told by Central Insurance of Iran to recapitalise and meet new minimum liquidity rules ahead of the impending payout surge.
The government in 2017 set IRR2.5 trillion ($65.18mn at the official exchange rate) as the minimum capital requirement for starting a reinsurance firm and IRR1tn as the requirement for starting an insurance firm.
9.1.8 Agricultural sector news
Iran’s pistachio exports climb in Persian 1H but drought hits harvest
Iranian fruit exports to Russia ‘soar pushing out Uzbek and Moldovan rivals’
Iran exported 63,000 tonnes of pistachios in the first half of the current Persian calendar year (March 21-September 22), marking an increase of 8,000 tonnes y/y, Mehr News Agency reported on October 20.
The shipments brought in revenues of $426mn, the agriculture ministry was cited as saying.
Despite the raised export volume, the Iran Pistachio Association (IPA) noted that because of poor growing conditions experienced this year, the country was set to record a harvest decline of 70,000 tonnes year on year. The main cause was said to be drought, which the IPA suggested had also damaged pistachio trees important to the 2022 harvest.
“Iran Pistachio Association will announce the exact statistics of pistachio production this year after the end of the harvest in the eighth Iranian calendar month of Aban (October 23-November 21), but our estimate is that output will be 140,000-150,000 tonnes”, Hossein Rezaei, secretary-general of the IPA, was reported as saying.
Around one-fifth of pistachio production in Iran is consumed domestically. The major export destinations for Iranian pistachios this calendar year were recorded as India, China and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran exported a record volume of fruit and nuts worth $196mn to the Russian Federation in the first nine months of 2021, with the export value up 1.5-fold y/y, east-fruit.com has reported. As Iranian fruit traders made gains, Uzbek and Moldovan counterparts lost market share, it added.
Andriy Yarmak, an economist at the Investment Centre of the Food and
54 IRAN Country Report November 2021 www.intellinews.com