The foreign currency allocated to the supply of essential goods in the current fiscal year (2021-22) isn’t commensurate with the estimated demand for these goods.
According to Mohammad Mehdi Nahavandi, a member of the Iranian Association of Livestock and Poultry Feed Importers, the sharp decrease in domestic production of livestock feed due to the unprecedented drought, along with a 30-40% increase in the global prices of animal feed, shows that resources earmarked for the supply won’t meet domestic demand.
“On the other hand, bureaucratic procedures needed to be completed for the supply of animal feed have coincided with the transition of government and all these have resulted in the relative shortage of animal feed. The persistence of the current situation portends the worsening of problems in the future,” he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
“We’re concerned about the future of poultry industry as the supply of animal feed is inadequate,” said Mohammad Yousefi, a board member of the Poultry Breeders Association.
“The distribution of animal feed through the ‘Bazargah’ [a website designed by Agriculture Ministry to streamline the clearance of imported animal feed from customs and ports] is not efficient; some producers paid for their share of animal feed two months ago and are yet to receive their quota,” Yousefi told the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
“Importers make profit from the flow of their products in the market, i.e., the speedy clearance from customs’ warehouses and sales of products, as storage in warehouses would only impose additional costs,” Abbas Hajizadeh, secretary of the Iranian Association of Livestock and Poultry Feed Importers, told ISNA.
“These days a large amount of livestock feed and oilseeds have piled up at the warehouses of Ports and Maritime Organization in the northern and southern ports of the country. Yet, high prices of livestock and poultry feed have caused widespread discontent,” he added.
According to Hassan Abbasi-Maroufan, an official with the Agriculture Ministry, there are 4.1 million tons of animal feed at Iranian ports, including 829,000 tons of barley, 2.15 million tons of corn and more than 700,000 tons of soybean meal.
“A total of 475,000 tons of soybean are also available at ports, 18% of which will be used for extracting oil and the rest will be used as animal feed while 3.03 million tons of the imported livestock feed have been stored at Imam Khomeini Port in the southern Khuzestan Province,” he said.
“For months to come, import order registration processes for 14 million tons of animal feed have been completed. Animal feed imports, which have been cleared, received 100% of their subsidized foreign currency and those stored at ports received 50% of the foreign currency.”
Abbasi-Maroufan believes that market instability has increased, thanks to the psychological effect of livestock farmers’ concerns about the transition of one government administration to another, and the probable shortage of livestock feed, more than any other reason.
“This is while the country’s food security has been guaranteed up until the end of the year,” he said.
“Drought and decline in forage crops is another cause of market uncertainty. We have planned to use forage alternatives [to corn silage] and increase imports to tackle the deficit. Agriculture Ministry will increase imports of barley from three million tons to six million tons,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
More than 4.7 million tons of animal feed have been distributed via ‘Bazargah’ since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21) including one million tons of barley, 2.7 million tons of corn, and one million tons of soybean meal, i.e. 1.6 million tons each month as per the domestic demand, he said.
