Iran's Strategic Goods Storage Capacity on the Rise

EghtesadOnline: Mazandaran Ports and Maritime Organization recently signed a contract with a private sector company to build a silo with a storage capacity of 30,000 tons of grains in Noshahr Port.

News ID: ۷۸۶۳۴۶

14 April 2021

“The private company will invest a total of 402 billion rials [$1.62 million] in the project. The silo is expected to be built and inaugurated within two years,” the head of the organization, Mohammad Taqi Anzanpour, was quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.

The official noted that when the project is launched, Noshahr Port’s silo storage capacity will reach 100,000 tons.

The government is building up its wheat reserves by constructing new silos across the country.

A silo with a storage capacity of 30,000 tons of wheat was launched in the southern Khuzestan Province’s Hamidiyeh County earlier in 2021 in a ceremony attended by Agriculture Minister Kazem Khavazi.

“The private sector has invested 150 billion rials [$600,000] in the construction of this silo,” director general of Grain Affairs and Commercial Services Department of Khuzestan’s Agricultural Organization, Omid Jahan-Najadiyan, was quoted as saying by IRNA.

When this silo becomes operational, the official said, the province’s total wheat storage capacity will reach 1.44 million tons, which is more than Khuzestan’s annual wheat yield.

Khuzestan is Iran’s biggest wheat producer.

The construction of a 100,000-ton grain silo recently began in Chabahar's Shahid Beheshti Port.

The silo is being built on a 3.5-hectare area. It is expected to create about 200 direct jobs, Roads and Urban Development Ministry's official news outlet reported.

An estimated $20 million will be invested for the development of the key project.

Increasing Chabahar's grain storage capacity is expected to help the port play a more significant role in goods transportation to/from Central Asian countries, particularly the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Chabahar, Iran’s sole oceanic port along its southeastern coast, serves as a transit route linking India, Iran and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.

A contract was signed in June last year for the construction of another silo with a storage capacity of 30,000 tons of grains in the northern Amirabad Port.

According to Director of Amirabad Special Economic Zone Mohammad Ali Saeedi, the contract is in the form of a BOT (build, operation and transfer).

This project is expected to be completed within two years.

“Presently, Amirabad has a storage capacity of 235,000 tons of grains. More silos with a collective storage capacity of 235,000 tons are under construction,” the official was quoted as saying by IRNA.

The new silo will be built on around 7,000 square meters of land and create 12 direct jobs for local people.

Amirabad is the largest port facility on the Caspian shore and the third largest in Iran. The 1,000-hectare port has nine berths, which can accommodate Ro-Ro vessels, trains and trucks.

“Iran’s capacity for storage of strategic goods and grains is currently at 21 million tons,” Qodrat Heydari, an official with Government Trading Corporation of Iran, a subsidiary of Agriculture Ministry, last year.

“The capacity of government-owned storage units stands at 5.5 million tons with 156 silos, mechanized or semi-mechanized storehouses and simple warehouses and that of private-owned units hovers around 15.5 million tons with 600 silos, mechanized storehouses, cement and metal silos,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.

“The government has no concern about food security, particularly about wheat. However, we welcome further investment in sectors that need it most.”