Cooking Oil Import Banned

The import of cooking oil has been banned to support domestic production, an official with Iran's Food and Drug Administration announced.

Ali Akbar Dadmehr added that the ban does not include the import of raw vegetable oil that is refined and processed into other products inside the country, provided that it is marketed as a domestic brand, IRNA reported.

According to Alireza Mohajer, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture, Iran's per capita vegetable oil consumption currently stands at 20 kg per year, which is seven times higher than the global per capita consumption.

"Per capita consumption stood at only 2.5 kg in the fiscal 1963-64, indicating a 17.5-kg rise over 54 years," he said.