Page 48 - IRANRptAug21

Toughest in 50 years
Iran earns $71mn surplus on apples for bananas trade programme
Iran’s feed industry ‘operating at only 25% of capacity due to lack of feedstuff promised by officials’
Sadeq Ziaeian, director of Iran's National Drought Warning and Monitoring Center, this week told Iranian media that the country was facing one of its toughest rainfall seasons in 50 years.
In comments made to IRNA and carried by the Tehran Times, he noted rainfall had dropped by nearly 50% in South Khorasan province this year compared to the long-term average and by as much as 80% in southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province.
Drought-related water deficits have also led to rolling power cuts in localities supplied by hydroelectric plants. They supply around 15% of Iran's power supply, according to energy ministry data.
Ali Mirchi, an assistant professor in Oklahoma State University's Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, was quoted by Thomson Reuters Foundation on July 28 as saying Iran's water supply was dwindling because of climate change and poor policymaking, while demand was rising, driving shortages.
Iran’s customs office IRICA has reported a surplus of $71.3mn generated by a trade programme in the last Persian calendar year (ended March 20) that conditioned banana imports on apple exports, PressTV has reported. Apple exports from Iran amounted to $326.6mn in value for nearly 885,000 tonnes of shipments. Bananas imported by Iran were worth $255.3mn and weighed in at 375,000 tonnes.
Facing an oversupply of apples, Iran’s agriculture ministry reportedly proposed a system under which banana importers had to sell three kilograms of grade 1 or grade 2 apples to foreign customers in return for permission to import 1 kg of bananas. The programme was said to have helped Iran export more than a fifth of its apple harvest last calendar year.
Iranian apples found their way to 27 countries with Iraq, Russia and Afghanistan the main destinations. Their combined purchases stood at $251mn.
Turkey was the main supplier of bananas to Iran, with nearly $130mn of import shipments registered at IRICA in the year to March. Iran also took delivery of banana cargoes from India, at $54.3mn, and from six other countries. Separately, Mehr News Agency reported on July 15 that the director-general of the Coordinating Office of the Export Promotion Center of Iran (TPOI) has announced that $49mn worth of edible flowers and plants were exported from the country in the first three months of the current Persian year (ended June 21).
Mahmoud Bazari stated that Iran exported 29,000 tonnes of medicinal, edible, ornamented and industrial flowers and plants. Valuable food seasoning saffron accounted for 52 tonnes, with a value of $26mn.
Iran’s feed industry is operating at only 25% of its capacity utilisation ratio due to the lack of feedstuff promised by the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, Seyed Kazem Mousavi, a member of the Iranian Association of Livestock, Poultry and Aquatic Industries has been quoted as saying by All About Feed.
Feed shortages in Iran are caused by sanctions disruption and drought, while, according to insiders, the government policy of distribution of feedstuff only worsens the situation. Iran is attempting to import a record amount of feed from Russia to address the difficulties, according to local reports.
The ministry abandoned providing raw materials to feed mills during the past year, causing turmoil in the industry, Kazem Mousavi was further cited as saying by the trade journal, adding: “Facing a lack of animal feed, poultry farmers have to begin producing feed themselves, mixing different components
48 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com