Iran, Netherlands Sign Two Agro Deals

EghtesadOnline: Iran and the Netherlands signed two memoranda of understanding during the second meeting of the joint agriculture commission that ended in The Hague on Friday.

News ID: ۷۸۲۵۰۳

06 May 2018

The meeting was held in the third-largest city of the Netherlands on May 2 with senior directors of Iran’s Agriculture Ministry headed by deputy agriculture minister, Eskandar Zand.

The Iranian delegation reached comprehensive agreements in the fields of research, vocational education and joint investment, marketing agricultural products and management of water and soil with Dutch officials.

During the signing ceremony, the two sides called for the establishment of specialized working groups to push common goals in various fields, including preserving livestock and plants, greenhouse cultivation, genetic resources, fisheries and dairy, according to Financial Tribune.

The Iranian delegation’s deal with Wageningen University stipulates cooperation in the fields of applied education, promoting productivity in potato production, fishery and food security.

Iran has defined joint projects in agriculture with many countries in recent years. Standing out among these countries is the Netherlands, which is the first country to have appointed an agricultural attaché to Iran after the lifting of international nuclear sanctions in Jan. 2016.

“Holland’s exports to Iran stood close to €1.07 billion during 2017, registering around 51% increase compared with 2016, according to the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics. It is difficult to say how much of this figure pertains to agro products since these range from seeds, plants and cow semen to agricultural machinery and parts. Yet, roughly estimated, agricultural products account for around one-third of the total sum,” Hans Smolders, the Dutch agricultural attaché to Iran, told us in an interview last month.

The real figures, he explained, are probably higher, because a lot of Dutch products enter Iran through Turkey and the littoral states of the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s exports to the European country, based on CBS data, stood at more than €590 million during the same period to register a 135% upsurge year-on-year.

“Holland’s main agro imports from Iran include pistachios, pomegranates, chili, processed products and flowers,” Smolders told the Financial Tribune.