The export of all kinds of refined vegetable oils has been banned since July 31.
This was announced by Industries Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari in a directive sent to the Iranian Vegetable Oil Industry Association on Monday.
The measure has been taken to make up for any supply shortage in the domestic market, as the commodity is considered a staple food in Iran, the association’s website reported.
As subsidized foreign exchange is used to import unprocessed vegetable oils, the move is also meant to end the outflow of subsidies allocated from government resources.
Annually, $4 billion are spent on the import of unprocessed oil, oilseed meal and soybean.
Iran meets over 90% of its domestic demand for unprocessed vegetable oil through imports, but exports over 10% of its refined vegetable oil annually.
Iran’s demand for raw vegetable oil stands at 1.5 million tons per year, 1.4 million tons of which are imported from Ukraine, South America and Malaysia, and the rest is procured via domestic production of oilseeds.
Iran’s per capita vegetable oil consumption is estimated to be 20 kilograms a year, 7 kilograms higher than the global average.
