TEHRAN- The Agriculture and Processing Industries Committee of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) held a meeting on Sunday to investigate the issues and problems related to the agricultural and processing units.

In the meeting, held at the place of TCCIMA, Alireza Peyman-Pak, the deputy agriculture minister for trade and market regulating, Ahmad Khani Nozari, the deputy agriculture minister for commercial affairs, Ataollah Ashrafi Esfahani, the chairman of TCCIMA’s Agriculture and Processing Industries Committee, and Kaveh Zargaran, the chairman of TCCIMA’s Trade Development and Facilitation Committee, as well as the chairmen of the unions and associations active in the fields of  agriculture and  processing industries were present.

Addressing the mentioned meeting, Peyman-Pak, who is the former head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), said, “We try as much as possible to remove the problems of those active in the fields of agriculture and processing industries”.

In this due, the official lamented lack of a system for information dissemination and sharing the existing problems.

He said, “We hope that, through cooperation of the TCCIMA, we will define a structure through which the problems could be referred to, so that we can investigate and remove them.”

He called on the chamber for the establishment of a secretariate in this due, and said, “A system should be formed through which we can set a direct relation to study and resolve the problems of the unions and associations.”

“We hope that the chamber will cooperate with us in this due”, he stressed.

Answering the problems related to the foreign currency obligation in terms of agricultural products, Peyman-Pak said, “We are following up this issue”.

“Agriculture Ministry has no authority in the issue of removing foreign currency obligation, but we are persistent to move forward with a more attractive rate”, the deputy minister announced.

“Efforts were made to manage the import and save foreign currency so that the production is not damaged. With greater commercial cooperation with Eurasian countries in the field of basic goods, the share of imports from these countries increased”, the official added.

MA