Tehran, Iran, Nov.8
Trend:
The newly re-imposed US sanctions have created problems in some of international food transactions between Iran and its trade partners.
"Although food sector is not part of US sanctions but we have faced problems in some international transactions and money transfers that have led us to use intermediaries," Secretary General of the Food Stockers Association Ghasem Ali Hassani told Trend.
"Expenditures of food importers rose by 15 percent, which happened due to the miscalculation of the Central Bank in its plan to dictate a single exchange rate for the rial against the US dollar ", he said referring to the situation of association and influence of economic sanctions.
"Therefore many importers misused the official low rate of 42,000 rial and sold the goods according to free market rates of 150,000 rial. For instance a tea container which used to be profitable for about 150 million rial, made 2000 million rial for the importer,” he added.
"Although the government`s decision was aimed to support the poorest social class but the currency was exiting the country in various ways. In general, misuse of importers, lack of domestic factory sale and increase of food prices in some markets pressured the Iranian consumers." he noted.
On Monday, US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo tweeted in Farsi: "[US] sanctions do not apply to the sale of food, agriculture, medicine, and medical devices."
"The food sector is not included in list of sanctions but most countries are ready to export goods in exchange of crude oil. Therefore we do not have many problems,” said Hasani.
According to the Statistical Center of Iran, the overall goods and services Consumer Price Index in Iran registered in October increased 32.8 percent compared to the same month last year.
The average Consumer Price index of “Food and Beverages” in the 12-month period until Oct. 22 to increase 16.8%, comparing to the similar period last year.