Iran sending planeloads of food to Qatar daily

EghtesadOnline: Further indications have emerged that a blockade declared by several Persian Gulf states against Qatar has already opened a food corridor between Tehran and Doha since last week. Iranian officials say the country is already sending at least 100 tonnes of food supplies to Qatar by plane every day.

News ID: ۷۴۲۰۸۱

12 June 2017

Shahrokh Noushabadi, Iran Air's spokesman, was quoted by the domestic media as saying that at least five planeloads of fruits and vegetables had already been sent to Qatar, PressTV reported.

Noushabadi added that the cargoes had been sent to the embattled Persian Gulf state by an Iran Air Boeing 747 plane from Tehran and Shiraz airports, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.

The official further emphasized that Iran was ready to increase the number of food shipments to Qatar, stressing that plans were already at hand to the same effect.

On a related front, an official at the Chamber of Commerce of Iran’s Alborz Province was quoted by IRNA news agency as saying that a cargo of 100 tonnes of fruits and vegetables from the province had been packed and delivered to Qatar by air in less than 12 hours.

Kazem Mirjalili, the head of the Agriculture Department of Alborz Chamber of Commerce, emphasized that the province was ready to supply Qatar’s required food items as well as pharmaceuticals “within the shortest time possible.”

An equal amount of fruits and vegetables are being sent to Qatar by plane from Iran’s southern city of Shiraz, Fars Province.

Ali Hemmati, the president of Fars Province Agriculture, Mine and Trade Organization, was quoted by local media as saying that 100 tonnes of fruits and vegetables were already being sent to Qatar.

Another provincial official also told media that Fars Province was ready to export 45 tonnes of dairy products to Qatar every day.

The diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its Persian Gulf neighbors has also led to Doha using Iran’s airspace.

Ali Abedzadeh, the CEO of the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran, told media that there has been an increase of 17 percent in the number of flights that pass through Iran’s airspace.