- Kaveh Zargaran, iranGrain Board of Director’s Member: Iran, as the second economy of the Middle East, covers a huge consumer market, therefore, it has an important role on influencing the grain market price. iranGrain conference bridges the gap between the huge public and private consumers and the famous producers in the world. At the time of sanctions, the brokers are ruling the market in Iran, while this conference can connect the consumer to the producers and at the same time finds a solution for the banking and transaction problems.
- Hossein Yazdjerdi, iranGrain Board of Director’s Member: The sanctions have made it difficult for the Iranians to participate in international conferences, as a result we decided to hold iranGrain and to help grain related companies in Iran to access the latest scientific research and knowledge.
- Noori, CEO of Tak Makaron: One of the biggest challenges of the food industry is the problems facing the export process. Right now, Iran is in need for bringing foreign currencies to the country and this happens while the producers start exporting their goods. However, this should not happen at any price, some companies are exporting raw materials which sends away many job opportunities and resources.
- Ghazi, CEO of Varamin Flour: Regarding the amount of grain consumption in Iran and its market in the Middle East, it should have become a grain hub years ago. At the moment, Iran can be called a small grain hub, however, in order to increase that, we need to do more business with other countries. The more economic influencers talk about these issues in media and conferences, the more the government would notice the problem and tries to solve some of the present issues.
- Mohammadreza Mortazavi, Head of Iran Association of Flour Millers: The aim in holding iranGrain was to fill the void in the information on trade, harvesting, and the modern technologies of Iran’s grain industry, that was not clearly talked about in other conferences.
- Esmaeel Esfandiarpour, Head of Wheat Plan in Ministry of Agriculture Jihad: It is estimated that in 2020-2021, Iran’s wheat production target would be 14.5 million tons. To reach this, the government is focusing on mechanized sewing and harvesting, protecting the crop from the disease and developing new methods of irrigation.
- Reza Alvand, Chairman of the Board in Tech Travel Iran: Tech Travel has prepared a package for Negashteh’s audience for attending Tier and Technik 2020 which is going to be held 20-23 March 2020 in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
- Amin Tahsili, CEO of Agro Metal: Iran has a great potential, cheap energy and water resources and excellent geographic position for the development of any business. Using the local potential for the transit of goods, companies can save on time and costs. Because of the sanctions, there are difficulties in controlling the projects, however, since Iran is connected through railway to the neighboring countries, there is a great chance for transit of goods to India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Masoud Khansari, Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture: We are focusing on developing economic transactions with other countries in the world and we believe that Iran’s economy could join to the economy of neighboring countries, China, India and Russia and increase the amount of exports to these countries wile meeting the importing needs if Iran.
- Fatemeh Pasban, APERDRI Faculty Member: It is essential that while importing oilseeds, the health factors would be prioritized over the economic ones in choosing the type of seed, health standards and the country of origin.
- Mohsen Safdari, from Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade: In order to expand the export capabilities of Iran and increasing the nominal capacity of flour production, temporary import of wheat is being negotiated in Ministry of Agriculture Jihad and Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
- Abbas Zadeh, Plant Manager at Laleh Isfahan Flour: According to the claims of the government about wheat self-sufficiency in Iran, allowing the flour export to Iraq and Afghanistan can have a dramatic increase in the revenue of the flour mills. After bans of flour exports, Turkey won got these countries market.
- Sharif Nezam Mafi, Chairman of the Board at Iran-Switzerland Chamber of Commerce: We hope that in the next iranGrain conferences, we can also have a tradeshow and get closer to the standard structure of the world famous conferences in the grain industry. There is this certainty that with the easing of sanction against Iran and the improvements in the economic situation of the country, we will have more than 30 famous international companies in the grain industry attending and sponsoring the conference for 2020.iranGrain is also considering holding provincial conferences with more focus on each province’s strength and weak points. The first round of the provincial conferences is going to be held in Ahvaz, Khuzestan.Iran is a country with enormous potential in the grain industry and the room for investments in this sector and we hope that iranGrain helps that and December 2nd and 3rd will be the official dates of iranGrain in the global calendar for grain events.
