TEHRAN: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene to facilitate exports of Iranian food to Russia, head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce says.
Russia’s leaders have cited Iran as a possible new source of supply after banning imports from Turkey but Mohsen Jalalpour said Iranian exporters face hurdles to access the Russian market.
“After a decade of trade relations, our food still faces limitations for entry into Russia.”
“At the request of Agriculture Minister (Mahmoud Hojjati) from the president, Mr. Rouhani has had a talk with Mr. Putin about promoting and facilitating Iranian food exports to Russia and reviewing imports of Iranian agricultural goods.”
Jalalpour cited tough import regulations and tariffs which Russia has in place for imports from Iran.
“Lately, we have realized that the Russian customs is levying 17-18% tariffs of $7,500 from each container of agricultural products which they didn’t get from Turkey and some other regional countries,” he said.
“The government must resolve these issues,” Jalalpour added.
Iran has tried to step in to fill the vacuum left from the absence of Turkish exports to Russia but Jalalpour said Iranian exporters have to take the initiative and find customers.
“Our exporters must have a presence in target countries and do marketing themselves instead of sitting down and waiting for customers to come to them. Also, the government must remove the hurdles of the Russian market.”
The idea of Russian imports of Iranian dairy, milk, meat, poultry and seafood has been broached for some time but major shipments have yet to take off.
Even before tensions with Turkey, Russia had been looking for new sources of agricultural products after banning imports of fruit, vegetables, fish and dairy products from Europe, the U.S., Canada and Australia in retaliation.
Turkey was the main beneficiary of Russia’s ban on food imports from the European Union and the US. Russian officials say they plan to replace produce imports from Turkey with those from Central Asian countries, Iran and Morocco.
