Importing agricultural products through Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) could help set more realistic prices and also prevent the import of low quality commodities, Mohammad Moravej Hosseini, the head of Association of Iran Textile Industries (AITI), told TNA on Sunday.
Pointing to the traditional structure of the agricultural products market in the country and the unfamiliarity of the players in the sector with trading at the IME, Hosseini said that offering the imported agricultural products at the IME could boost imports and prices would be discovered in a regulated and transparent manner.
For instance, the AITI head said, the country’s textile industry needs some 180,000 metric tons of cotton wool every year, while the annual domestic production hardly hits 60,000 tons and the remaining 120,000 tons is imported mainly from India. Due to the sanctions imposed on Iran and the subsequent restrictions in money transfers, Iran has had to barter oil for low quality Indian cotton wool and cotton fabrics.
Hosseini urged different industries to make the best use of the IME’s potential to provide a balance for the domestic market and also for imports and exports. Considering the sensitivity towards the quality and standards at the IME, offering the imported products such as cotton wool would prevent low quality products from being brought in, added Hosseini.
He further recommended the manufacturers, consumers, and the IME officials that they should hold regular meetings. In such meetings, Hosseini stressed, the decision makers at the mercantile exchange address the difficulties and barriers the manufacturers, importers, and exporters are faced with. Based on what the AITI head said, such offers would discover the prices fairly.
During the past months, limited amounts of cotton wool have been offered at the IME and if the imported products were to be offered, the trades would probably thrive in a few months.
