Now that the government allocates subsidized foreign currency to imports of essential goods, their export seems to be uncalled-for, the head of Exports Promotion Directorate of the Agriculture Ministry said on Sunday. Referring to the export of a fraction of imported essential goods that were in excess of domestic need over the past few years, Shahrokh Shajari added that the substantial rise in import order registrations of these products seems to be motivated by profiteering. Therefore, the government decided last week to ban the export of 18 agricultural products “until further notice”, IRNA quoted him as saying. These items included corn, wheat, flour, barley, oat, oilseeds, unprocessed oil, palm oil, alfalfa, straw and wheat straw, fish meal, bran, soybean meal, press cakes, fish feed, additives for fish feed, rye and sorghum. The ban on exports came after the Iranian government prohibited the import of 1,339 items categorized as “Group Four” products that are “non-essential and have domestic counterparts”, in a move to save foreign currency.
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