TEHRAN – Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) hosted a conference on Iran-Brazil trade opportunities and challenges on Sunday, the TPO portal reported.

The event was attended by senior officials including TPO Acting Head Mehdi Zeyghami, head of Iran-Brazil Joint Chamber of Commerce Fakhredin Amerian, Director General of TPO’s Europe and America Department Ahmad Firouzi, and Iranian Ambassador to Brazil Hossein Gharibi, along with a handful of the country’s traders, entrepreneurs, and businessmen.

At the beginning of the conference, Firouzi listed some of the challenges and difficulties that Iranian businessmen are facing in trade with Latin American countries, especially Brazil, and said: “Such difficulties and challenges have been the main reason for holding the third edition of the Iran-Brazil Trade Opportunities Conference with the aim of identifying the obstacles and examining the ways to develop trade with the country.”

Further in the event, Zeyghami for his part referred to TPO’s plans for the development of trade with Brazil, saying: “Trade with Brazil is very important for us, and the frequency of various conferences in this regard is indicative of this importance.”

The official pointed to distance, logistics, lack of direct shipping lines, and financial issues, as the main reasons for the lack of trade with Latin American countries, adding that: “however, the policy of the Trade Promotion Organization is to increase the export product groups as well as markets, and for this reason, trade with Latin America is important for us.”

He stated that the volume of exports to Brazil is less than the imports from this country and added: “The organization is following special programs to facilitate exports to Brazil, one of which is sending a commercial attaché to the country.”

Zeyghami further announced that the commercial attaché for Brazil has been selected and will soon be stationed in Sao Paulo.

“This is considered the country's first commercial attaché in Latin America and we hope that, along with our business center, it can help develop business with Brazil and other countries in the region,” he added.

EF/MA