In the meeting that took place on Tuesday in Moscow, Iranian Ambassador Kazem Jalali said that Iran could serve as a regional hub of production and distribution of grain products by processing grains imported from Russia.
He pointed to Iran’s policy of expanding ties with neighboring countries, saying that to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Iran could import its grain needs from Russia, instead of distant countries, .
President of the Russian Grain Union Arkady Zlochevsky, in turn, said that Russia was one of the biggest producers of grains in the world and has exported an annual amount of up to 45 million tons of grains in recent years.
Iran was the second largest importer of Russia grains last year, he said.
Iran enjoys great grinding capacity and can leverage the accessibility of Russian grains and use its latent grinding capacity to process and exports grains to the region, Zlochevsky told IRNA correspondent in Moscow.
Statistics indicated that only 10 million tons of Iran’s 26-million-ton grinding capacity provided by 371 plants is used to meet domestic demands.
Iranian grinding plants are operating with only 30 to 40 percent of capacity.
9416**9417
Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish
Your Comment