TEHRAN (Iran News) – Although the country is in under sanction and imports of foreign-made TVs is banned, LG, Samsung and Sony are dominating brands in Iran’s TV market.

Speaking in a press conference, Head of Association of Home Appliances Manufacturers (AHAM) Mr. Mohammad Reza Dayyani said currently LG’s share of Iran’s TV market is 16%, Samsung’s is 17% and Sony’s is 8% while the country is under sanctions and imports of those products are banned.

He went on to say that during the past three years, imports of the home appliances have been banned and it has led to the rise in production and occupation in this industry but now some people condemn production and defend imports.

Dayyani reiterated that today the mafias of importing the home appliances who feel the danger have started attack at domestic products and defended imports and they try to bring down this successful industry of the country.

He said in recent years huge investment has been done in this industry and imports of the home appliances will lead to the bankruptcy of the investors. He stated that for this reason producers wrote a letter to the Supreme Leader and called for banning the imports of the foreign-made home appliances.

Dayyani also criticized South Koreans and said while the Koreans were not ready even to reply to Iranian’s e-mails, they have announced readiness to send home appliances to Iran in exchange for Iran’s frozen assets.

He said South Koreans in 1960s banned imports of Japanese electronic goods for 12 years and even sales of Japanese goods were banned in their stores. He added that even the U.S. permanently changes the tariffs on imports to support its industries.

Dayyani reiterated that the association does not seek full ban on imports but it wants imports of home appliances to be managed and controlled for a period of five years in order that home-made products can improve their quality and standards to compete with foreign rivals.

He added that Turkey due to its policy last year earned $45b through production of home appliances production which was two times of Iran’s oil revenues and we should study how Turkey has been able to achieve such success.

Meanwhile the data released by Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry indicates that manufacturing of TV sets in Iran has increased 11.7 percent during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, As reported, 447,700 TV sets have been manufactured in the five-month period of this year.

Manufacturing of home appliances in Iran has risen 8.7 percent during the first five months of the present year, as 2.61 million sets of such products have been manufactured inside the country.

Home appliances manufacturing has also increased 78 percent to stand at 15 million sets in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20).

Rise in home appliances manufacturing and export has been also planned for the current year.