It is about a month now that the food industry is suffering from a severe shortage of vegetable oils, secretary of Iranian Pastry and Chocolate Industry Association said.
Jamshid Maghazei added that biscuit, pastry and chocolate industry need about 300,000-350,000 tons of vegetable oils annually.
"Government Trading Corporation of Iran’s failure to supply on credit the raw material needed by these units will lead to their closure," he was quoted as saying by ILNA on Wednesday.
Noting that Pastry and Chocolate Industry Association has 300-306 members, he said, “They have created jobs for 80,000 people and lack of raw materials, including oils, which are now only adequate until early July, will cost these people their jobs.”
Iran's exports of biscuit, pastry and chocolate declined by 40% last year (March 2019-20) compared with the year before.
“The decline will get even worse unless the industry receives their needed requirements of raw materials,” he said.
A total of $450 million worth of chocolate and pastry were exported from Iran in March 2019-20.
Iraq and Afghanistan are major export destinations for Iranian pastry and chocolate products.
Other destinations include the US, Japan, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and European countries, especially those in Eastern Europe.
Maghazei said last month that the spread of the new coronavirus has dealt a blow to exporters as well as domestic suppliers in the sector.
“Iran's exports of chocolate and pastry in the fiscal 2018-19 reached $800 million,” said Kaveh Zargaran, Iran Chamber of Commerce official.
Iran produced 1.7 million tons of pastry and chocolates that year.
“Domestic demand has experienced a 20-30% decline since the virus outbreak began. This is because the purchasing power has declined and under the circumstances, chocolate is not considered a priority in the household’s expenditure basket,” he was quoted as saying by Young Journalists Club.
According to the official, Iran produces 1.7 million tons of pastry and chocolate every year, while the nameplate capacity stands at 2.4 million tons per year.
Per capita consumption of pastry and chocolate in Iran (prior to coronavirus outbreak) is 21 kilograms per annum.
There are 350 chocolate and pastry production units in Iran.
The city of Tabriz in West Azarbaijan Province is Iran’s chocolate and biscuit production hub and arguably that of the entire Middle east. About half of Iran’s biscuits and chocolates are produced in this northeastern city.
According to a board member of Iranian Confectionery Industries Union, Fereydoun Doroudi, all the investments in this industry have been made by the private sector.
Pastry and chocolate account for 30-40% of Iran’s total food exports, according to Secretary of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran's Pastry, Chocolate and Cereal Products Desk Gholamreza Sabz-Ali.
About 70% of the machinery used in Iran's chocolate and pasty industry are supplied domestically.
