ANKARA – Kursad Tuzmen, Turkey's Minister of State in charge of foreign trade will head a high ranking economic delegation here next week to attend the Fourth Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Committee’s Meeting.

Tehran will host the meet from May 6-8, 2008, IRNA reported.
In this regard, Ahmad Nourani the Iranian embassy’s economic attaché in Ankara stated Iran has met high international standards in the fields of steel, auto making, spare parts, machineries, petrochemicals, and construction materials, and the meet will prepare the ground for Turkish tradesmen to become familiar with Iran’s industries and commercial capacities.
----- Iran opens ME’s first saffron pills production unit
BIRJAND – The Middle East’s first saffron pills production unit went on stream in Iran’s Southern Khorasan Province.
The managing director of the unit announced that there is no problem in regard to exporting the product and the company has been negotiating with 11 countries over the exports of the commodity there, reported ISNA.
Amir Raiefard said that the saffron pill will be much more economical for buyers.
Saffron, also called vegetable gold, botanical name crocus sativus, is the most expensive spice in the world used to color and flavor foods. Derived from the dried reddish-purple stigmas of the saffron crocus, it takes anything from 70,000 to 250,000 flowers to make one pound of saffron. It constitutes 13.5 percent of Iran's non-oil exports