Tehran, Astana target $1b in agro-trade
Iran and Kazakhstan have targeted $1 billion of trade in the agriculture and food industry sectors, announced Deputy Agriculture Minister Alireza Peymanpak, who headed a trade delegation to the Central Asian state.
During a visit to Kazakhstan, the Iranian delegation attended two specialized business meetings for the introduction of new business and joint investment opportunities in Almaty and Astana, IRNA reported.
During the meetings, the two sides discussed the requirements for facilitating joint agriculture cooperation between the two countries.
Peymanpak also held talks with Kazakh officials including the country’s deputy prime minister, the minister of trade, the minister of agriculture, and the governor of Almaty, in which he introduced new opportunities for cooperation in various fields like exporting fruits and vegetables, dairy, and aquatic products, as well as providing Iran’s needs for wheat and meat directly from Kazakhstan.
Solving challenges faced by the two countries in the field of veterinary medicine, logistics, financial and banking relations as well as the guarantees related to commercial contracts centered on agricultural products and animal husbandry were also among the focal points of negotiations between Peymanpak and the Kazakh authorities.
The value of Iran’s non-oil exports to Kazakhstan increased by 67 percent in the first month of the current Iranian year (March 21-April 20), compared to the first month of the past year, the spokesman of Trade Development Committee of the Iranian Chamber of Industry, Mine, and Trade has announced.
Rouhollah Latifi said that Kazakhstan imported non-oil commodities worth $12.5 million from Iran in the first month of this year.