Iran, Turkey Sign Three Agro MoUs

EghtesadOnline: Iran and Turkey signed three memoranda of understanding in the fields of horticulture, beekeeping and veterinary affairs.

News ID: ۷۸۴۱۵۰

10 October 2018

The MoUs were signed in a meeting held in the Iranian capital between Iran’s Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati and his Turkish counterpart Bekir Pakdemirli on Wednesday.

Pakdemirli said that Iran is expanding its activity in the field of greenhouses and Turkey, having years of experience in the field, can assist Iran in furthering its projects, ILNA reported.

“We hope you don’t go anywhere else for help in this field,” Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.

The area under greenhouse cultivation in Iran is more than 12,000 hectares. Over 70% of the area are dedicated to growing vegetables.

Plans are to increase the area to more than 48,000 hectares by 2025 to produce 21 million tons of agricultural products in greenhouses per year.

Iran ranks second globally in the expansion of greenhouse area after Mexico.

The Agriculture Ministry plans to transfer all vegetable farms to greenhouses within 10 years to save 10 billion cubic meters of water per year.

Iran is home to less than 0.3% of the world’s greenhouses.

According to Iran’s economic attaché to Turkey, Iran exported 97,000 tons of agricultural products worth around $58 million to the neighboring Turkey during the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21-July 22) and imported 88,000 tons worth $112 million in return.

Alireza Jafarbeiglou also told IRNA that Iran-Turkey agro trade hit $720 million during the last Iranian fiscal (March 2017-18), of which $217 million pertained to Iran’s exports to Turkey.