Iran mulls importing tomatoes from China – official

By  Trend

Mohammad Mir-Razavi, head of the wholesalers' food union, said the Iranian government is seeking to import tomatoes from China due to a shortage of the fruit in the country.

"We have asked China to ship tomatoes to Iran," Mir-Razavi said on September 29, IRIB news agency reported.

He added that the country is facing a shortage as a large portion of Iran’s tomatoes has been exported to Iraq.

Iran exported 303,000 tons of tomato in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21) an issue that prompted the country’s Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade to ban the fruit’s exports as its price has sharply increased.

Iraq, Russia, the UAE, Afghanistan and Qatar were the main customers of Iranian tomatoes during the period under review.

Mir-Razavi noted that the Iranian industry ministry acted late and should have banned the fruit’s exports earlier.