TEHRAN (Iran News) –Minister of Agriculture Jihad Seyed Javad Sadatinejad in the meeting with the visiting President of Republic of Bashkortostan of Russia Mr. Radiy Khabirov said that both sides can increase their trade to $400m in the first step.
In the meeting, Sadatinejad emphasized that the relation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia is a strategic and very important and effective relation in the current world and therefore in line with this strategic policy, the ministry of agriculture seeks broadening its agro cooperation with Russia.
He noted that the trade volume of Iran with Russia in the past two years has grown by 80% and reached $4b in 2020, adding that these exchanges in 2022 reached $4.6b that agriculture sector accounts for 85% of it.
The minister then pointed to the cultural commonalities of Bashkortostan with Iran and said that most of population of this republic is Muslim and there are around 4,000 joint Persian words in Bashkiri language.
He added that various agro products of Iran are exported to this republic like dairy and aquatic products, fruits and vegetables, food industries products and dried fruits and there are good exchanges of trade delegations between the two states. He noted of course good exhibitions have been in both countries.
Sadatinejad further said that the ministry is interested to increase its communications in the field of exchanging trade delegations as well as holding exhibition and export volume.
He said that currently the trade volume with this republic is $150m that some part of it is in the field of agriculture which includes Iran’s export as well as importing cereals and oil from Bashkortostan.
He reiterated that in the first step the bilateral trade should increase to $400m, adding that one of the grounds for cooperation can be attention to the forest and wood capacities of the republic in the field of supplying wood for Iran via exporting wood to Iran or producing joint products by using the capacities of factories.
He then pointed to the good capacities of this Russian republic in the fields of agro and meat and dairy, adding that since red meat in this republic is produced halal, Iran can easily import.
Then Khabirov, for his part, pointed to the long relation of Ira and Russia since the past till now, and noted that the major recent activities are planned in the roadmap that most of them will be in the field of agriculture.
He reiterated that in the past four years, they have broadened activities for halal products and of course this is a new activity and his country needs Iran’s help and consultation.
He emphasized imports of Iranian agro products like fruits, vegetables and fruits. Khabirov reiterated that Bashkortostan can be a hub for Iran’s food stud in the other republics of Russia because over 20m people live around this republic and it can be a big market for Iranian agro products. He noted that launch of a trade center ca be a good move for it and his country is ready to allocate the required land by removing formalities. He also announced for cooperation in extraterrestrial cultivation, adding his country is ready to offer required lands for Iranian investors.
