In the next few days, some 12 tons of hard cheese will be exported to Russia, according to Reza Bakeri, an official with Iran’s Dairy Industries Society. This comes after 12 tons of the product were exported to the neighboring country in early March as part of the first shipment of Iranian dairy products to Russia. “If the government provides incentives and shoulders some of the production costs, including transportation expenses, producers will be encouraged to increasingly embark on exports,” the Persian daily Forsat-e Emrooz quoted Bakeri as saying. The Russian market opened to Iranian dairy products after the country banned the import of European products in retaliation for sanctions imposed against Moscow by the EU over the crisis in Ukraine. Russians consume some 250,000 tons of cheese every year.
