Agro-Food Industry Needs Gov't Support
Posted by Zawya
Iran Daily
03 June 2010


Iran has launched its 17th International Agricultural Trade Fair to provide a platform for domestic and foreign businesses to put their products on display.

Participants in the fair said the four-day agricultural show would provide a great opportunity for cooperation and exchange of views among businesspeople around the world.

The fair that kicked off on Sunday in Tehran will also put on display Iran's agricultural machinery along with livestock and poultry production, organizers said.

The trade fair, supported by Iran's ministries of agricultural jihad and industries and mines, is taking place alongside "Iran Food and Hospitality 2010" where more than 350 international exhibitors are presenting their food products and services.

A group of producers present in the Iran Agro-Food Expo 2010 underlined the need for more support and supervision of the government over the agro-food sector.

These people told Iran Daily that the country's conditions regarding producing livestock and agro products are favorable and the main problem of the agro and food sector in terms of exports is mode of distribution and packaging.

The executive manager of the fair, Ladan Maleki, said in this year's event some 541 domestic companies and 290 foreign firms have participated.

"In the domestic section the number of participating companies rose by 20 percent compared to last year and in the foreign section the number of participating companies increased by about 12 percent compared to the previous year," she added.

This year 30 countries, including Spain, Australia, Austria, the UAE, Britain, Italy, Germany, Bahrain, Brazil, Belgium, Bulgaria, Portugal, Thailand, Taiwan, Turkey, China, Denmark, Russia, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Finland, Canada, Lebanon, Poland, Egypt, Holland, India and Greece are present in the undertaking.

Last year, 24 countries were present in the expo.

This year, the expo is being held in three sections. The Iran-Food Section includes food products, processing industries and related sectors. The Iran-Food tech Section pertains to food-related machinery, equipment and technology and packaging and Iran-Agro Section is linked to agro and irrigation machinery and equipment, agro industries as well as animal husbandry and related industries.

Knowhow Exchange
Maleki recalled that this year's event is aimed at upgrading exchange of information in agro and foodstuff industries, introducing the country's capabilities and advances in this arena and improving the level of trade exchanges for promoting non-oil exports.

"Since food industry is among rapid-profit yielding industries and it has abundant value added on the global level, it can play an effective part in promoting non-oil exports," Maleki said.

Managing director of a company producing honey in Khansar, Majid Jenabi said his company before having packaging machinery exported its honey to the UAE in bulks and the country presented the product to markets under its own name.

"Arab countries are typically deprived of honey production due to climatic conditions and hence they enthusiastically receive Iranian natural honey which has favorable scent and flavor," he noted.

Exports manager of a large company producing foodstuff, Touraj Parsi said industrial units in the foodstuff sector do not get anywhere without governmental support.

"Government's support is not just limited to material and credit support, but rather it includes cases such as reducing tariffs and offering facilities which result in reduction of the final price. The situation must become ripe so that our producers can advertise and do packaging in accordance with the cultural conditions of Western countries and they face less restrictions in this respect," he noted.

Managing director of a rice importing company, Kamal Khanbabaei said the costs for producing Iranian rice are high and hence imports procure local needs for this product.

"Rice production in the country does not take place in a mechanized manner while labor costs in countries such as India are much lower," he said.

Technical manger of a company producing water purification and salt removal machinery, Ali Mohammadi Mahjoub said, "Seven years ago most of the salt removal equipments were imported but at the moment my company can produce them."

"Of course, at present the government does not exercise any supervision on importation of foodstuff-related machinery and due to absence of suitable quality control schemes many of the existing machinery become outdated after operating for a while," he added.

By Sadeq Dehqan

© Iran Daily 2010

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