Raw Vegetable Oil Imports to Continue Despite Sanctions

Despite sanctions and limitations on international money transfer, Iran will import 1.1 million tons of raw vegetable oil, including those from soybean, sunflowers, palm and sesame, in the fiscal 2019-20, just as it did last year, the secretary of Iranian Vegetable Oil Industry Association said.  
“Last year, the country imported sunflower oil from Russia, Ukraine and Argentina, soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine and South America, and palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia. Sesame oil is not categorized within 25 categories of essential goods to import, for which the government allocates subsidized foreign currency, so importers have to provide their needed foreign currency from export earnings of non-oil products traded on Nima [the so-called secondary FX market},” Amir-Houshang Birashk added.