TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian trade officials removed export tariffs for potato amid an oversupply in the country which is expected to intensify during the current harvesting season.
A senior official at Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade said that zero-rated duty on potato export will be effective until further notice, reported Press TV.
Mohammadreza Kalami, who serves as head of the ministry’s domestic trade department, said that a current oversupply of potato is expected to increase as harvesting season for the crop normally ends in Iran November.
Kalami said the government would consider a delay for return of proceedings gained from exports to further incentivize potato exporters.
He said removing the duty on exports had come in response to a request by potato exporters in Iran.
However, reports in recent days had suggested that farmers and exporters where demanding the Trade Ministry to halve its fixed base price for potato exports to $100 per ton.
It also comes as agricultural authorities in key potato-growing provinces, including in Hamedan in the west and in Ardabil in northwest Iran, had warned they were running out of storage space for surplus potato production.
Iran ranked 13th in the world last year in terms of the volume of potato produced as total output reached over 5.1 million tons from 160,000 hectares of lands, according to figures by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The output of the staple crop is expected to grow in the upcoming years as farmers are using modern cultivation and irrigation technologies to increase production to nearly 70 tons per hectare.
Iran’s potato exports are mainly aimed at neighboring countries, including to Russia, Azerbaijan and Iraq.
- source : Iran Daily
