TEHRAN – The Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA)’s Agriculture and Process Industries Committee held its 23rd meeting on Sunday during which the problems and challenges facing businesses active in the agricultural sector were discussed.

The meeting was attended by Head of TCCIMA Agriculture Committee Kaveh Zargaran and Deputy Agriculture Minister for Planning and Economic Affairs Mohammad Ghorbani, the TCCIMA portal reported.

Speaking in the gathering, Zargaran mentioned a recent meeting of Agriculture Minister Javad Sadati-Nejad with the private sector representatives and said: “In that meeting, the agriculture minister emphasized the active presence of the private sector in the supply and maintenance of the country's strategic reserves.”

According to Zargaran, lack of capital and liquidity is the major issue that most of the companies and entities active in the agriculture sector are currently facing.

He called on the government to stop interfering with the pricing process of agricultural products, noting: “The government should eliminate the pricing policy and stop issuing different instructions for the pricing of products to allow the organizations and people active in this sector to be able to make plans and the market can be monitored by them.”

In response to the issues raised by the private sector representatives, Ghorbani for his part emphasized the necessity of the private sector entities entering the economic arena and providing assistance to the government, saying that the government is ready to take all the necessary measures for the active presence of the private sector in the agricultural sector.

EF/MA