Tehran, Iran, May 31
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
The 23rd International Exhibition of Food, Food Technology and Agriculture (Iran Agrofood 2016) is underway in Tehran, bringing hundreds of companies from around the world to a virgin market that has so far been virtually void of foreign companies due to sanctions.
Despite that the sanctions were lifted in early 2016, a single voice is heard among the participants: they are all worried about banking transactions that are still closed to Iran.
Iran was freed from nuclear-related sanctions in January, but still a set of US sanctions on the dollar remain in place, hindering virtually all international transactions with Iran.
"I have been talking to customers here. All they say is that the sanctions are still the one major problem," Vlamir Breternitz, director of the Brazilian Atlantica Foods, told Trend May 31.
Simone Gazzola, sales director at the Italian Agrex, indicated the same, saying, "All are waiting for the old scenario of sanctions and banking issues to be lifted in order to start business."
But things do not end here. Iranian industrialists who find themselves unable to export their products are also dismayed with the situation.
As an example, the Taymaz Food Processing Machinery's Marketing Director Reza Mansourian told Trend that his company is waiting for things to grow clearer so that his company could export its products to neighboring countries.
"We have been limitedly working with Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkey, and they seem to like our technology, but we hope we can find more opportunities once the banking problems are lifted," he said.