- Shams Azar Company in 2016-2017 managed to export pasta with the value of 7,100,000 dollars. This company produces 12,000 tons of different types of pasta a year and is planning to increase it by 2000 in the next few months.
- Etesam, CEO of Tide Water: Regarding the storage facilities of this company in different ports of Iran, apart from Tide Water facilities in Imam Khomeini port, we are building a 5000 square meter warehouse in Anzali port which will be opened in July-August 2017. The construction work on Amir Abad port’s silo which has 41000 tons of capacity is in progress. The silo sheets have been imported to Iran and until mid-July, the project will be finished. Tide Water has also won the tender for grain operation in Shahid Rajaee port and aims to make this port more active regarding the grain transportation.
- Khalili, Lipp Silos’ representative in Iran: One of the problems that silo representatives in Iran are facing these days is the high price of import tax for galvanized sheets. This is a decision taken by the government in order to support the local manufacturers. However, the quality of the sheets produced in Iran differs from the imported ones and Iran cannot produce sheets with more than 2 mm thickness.
- Zahiri from Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture: Exports need some infrastructure which the private sector is not capable of providing. The government should build roads and develops rail and air terminals. Recently, the government has bought 118 airplanes from France, the question is why they did not buy 18 of these airplanes for transporting cargo?
- Abassi Maroofan, commercial manager of GTC: One of the most important debates before the presidential election was about wheat imports. Fortunately, Hojjati, Iran’s Minister of Agriculture asserted that importing wheat does not mean that we are not self-sufficient in producing it. Maroofan added that last year we had 14 million tons of wheat which 11,524,000 tons of it was bought from the farmers and the rest was in the storage facilities from the previous year. This year we have had 8,200,000 tons of wheat from last year and it is estimated that the farmers would produce more than 10 million tons of wheat.
- Technical manager of Ravan Trans Apadana: The problem of mills with the bolts is that the machines are old and some mills do not have the needed budget to change the spare parts at the proper time; therefore, the bolts will be damaged. So, we can say that if the financial problems of the mills will be resolved they can check the machinery in time and prevent further damage.
- Head of Yazd’s GTC: In Yazd province, we have around 130,000 tons of storage facilities; however, 70,000 tons of it does not meet the required standards. We are trying to encourage the mills to develop their storage capacity.
- For the past 3 years, the confectioners in Iran have been selling their products with the same price. These prices were set by the confectioner’s guild; however, from 3 years ago, the price of the ingredients have increased by 50 percent.
- Zareien, talking about whole-wheat flour: There are different reasons why this kind of flour is not widely produced in Iran: The first one is that people are not aware of the health benefits of this type of flour. On the other hand, producing whole-wheat flour is more difficult than white flour and because of this mills prefer producing the white flour.
- Sanadizadeh, talking about whole-wheat flour: The machinery used for producing whole-wheat flour needs to be precise. The same goes with the laboratories in mills and the staff who are working in the mill. Asking third grade mills to produce whole-wheat flour does not seem to be efficient enough.
- Khedmatgozar, Amir Abad Port’s Manager: The silos of Amir Abad port start to work in less than two months. At the moment, 98 percent of the work has been done. Tide Water has made a 370,000 dollars investment on the silo storage in Amir Abad Port.
