A total of 30,000 tons of edible oil have been distributed by the Government Trading Corporation of Iran in the domestic market over the past three days, Mohammad Taqi Tabatabaie, the spokesman of the company, said on Sunday.
“The strategic reserves of unprocessed oil are higher than in the last [Iranian] year [March 2019-20]; there is no problem or concern regarding any scarcity of the product,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
“Over the past 2-3 weeks, close to 50,000 tons of edible oil have been supplied to regulate the market; the Government Trading Corporation of Iran is planning to provide more of the essential product to meet domestic demand.”
Tabatabaie noted that other than a vessel, which unloaded its cargo of 42,000 tons of raw oil at Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, on Thursday, the offloading operation of another container ship carrying 131,000 tons of unprocessed oil is underway at Imam Khomeini Port in the southwestern Khuzestan Province.
“A total of 131,000 tons of unprocessed edible oil have been recently imported via Imam Khomeini Port in the southern Khuzestan Province,” Omid Jahan-Nejadian, an official with the Government Trading Corporation of Iran, was quoted as saying by IRNA on Wednesday.
“As planned, unprocessed oil imports through Imam Khomeini Port will reach 500,000 tons by the end of the current Iranian year [March 20, 2021]. The import of unprocessed vegetable oil is continuing smoothly through other ports of entry as well.”
The Government Trading Corporation of Iran, affiliated to the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade, is in charge of importing four essential goods, namely sugar, rice, vegetable oil and wheat.
The GTC official’s comments came after the Central Bank of Iran’s failure to allocate foreign currency to import unprocessed oils caused disruptions in the domestic market.
“The Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has sent us to the CBI. But the problem is that the allocated forex cannot be transferred,” Amir-Houshang Birashk, secretary of Iranian Vegetable Oil Industry Association, told Mehr News Agency.
“As we speak, 60,000 tons of unprocessed oils are held up in customs warehouses. We are negotiating to solve the problem. All edible oil companies have been affected. Imports of unprocessed oil have declined by 50%. Those in charge need to find a solution to avoid new challenges to the vegetable oil industry,” he said in late October.
Self-Reliance Goal
An estimated 550,000 hectares of farmlands are to go under oilseed cultivation in the current crop year (Sept. 2020-21) to produce 900,000 tons of the crucial crop, up 50%, according to the director of the Agriculture Ministry’s “National Oilseed Project”.
“Based on the ministry’s plan and provided farmers are encouraged to join hands, it is estimated that 600,000 tons of colza will be harvested from 350,000 hectares, 200,000 tons of soybeans from 100,000 hectares and 100,000 tons of other types of oilseeds [sunflower, safflower and sesame] from 100,000 hectares across the country,” Alireza Mohajer was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
He said that this year, 10 oil extraction factories have signed agreements with the Agriculture Ministry, based on which they can buy directly from farmers as per “contract-based cultivation”.
Factories sign contract-based deals with farmers for colza, soybean and sunflower to be cultivated over 200,000 hectares. The companies will provide seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to the farmers, buy insurance for them and train them in modern farming.
“The government has announced a guaranteed purchase price for oilseeds. Farmers can sell their products in the market to the highest bidder but if for any reason, prices plunge, the Government Trading Corporation will purchase the harvest at guaranteed prices,” Mohajer said.
The provinces of Golestan in the north, Ardabil in the northwest and Khuzestan in the south are the main colza producing regions of Iran.
The government is targeting 70% self-reliance in the production of oilseeds over the next 10 years to keep imports of oilseeds and vegetable oil in check.
“The plan kicked off in late 2015. Oilseed production was 46,000 tons in the fiscal 2014-15,” Mohajer told Young Journalists Club.
He added that US economic sanctions have compelled the Agriculture Ministry to accelerate the task of reaching the 70% target.
Per capita vegetable oil consumption in Iran is 18-19 kilograms a year while the global average is 12 kilograms. Iran’s annual demand for unrefined vegetable oil is around 1.6 million tons.
A total of 810,000 tons of vegetable oil were produced by domestic refiners in the first half of the current fiscal year (March 20-Sept. 21), down 15% compared with the similar period of last year, according to the secretary of Iran’s Vegetable Oil Industries Guild Union.
“Over the same period and due to economic sanctions that have created obstacles in the way of money transfer plus the forex allocation problems, oilseed imports plunged by more than half year-on-year,” Birashk was quoted as saying by IRIB News.
Almost 85% of the raw materials for producing cooking oil are imported. "The bulk of imports are palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, soybean oil from Argentina and sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia,” he said last year.
