TEHRAN, Iran, April 9. New customs regulations could reduce Iran's export of agricultural products, the Chairman of Iran's National Union for Agricultural Products Reza Nourani told Trend in an interview.
The customs law on the export of agricultural products requires exporters to pay 0.5 percent of export value for water consumption.
"The following law will reduce export in the long term since exporters can not afford to pay the extra custom fee without any advances from the government," he said.
The official has gone on to say that the exporters are facing a shortage of refrigerated containers for transporting fruit and vegetables while officials are imposing high transportation fees during production peak season and preventing export.
The union has expressed its discontent over the new customs regulation to the president that has been referred to the Minister of Economic Affairs.
According to the official, Iran was predicted to export 370,000 tons of Kiwi and reach $300 million in revenue in the last Iranian year (started March 21, 2021) that did not occur due to a halt in kiwi export to India.
"No transparent actions were taken about the suspension of Iran's Kiwi export to India and no delegation has traveled to India to solve the issue while India has not responded to Iran's correspondence," he noted.
India has suspended the import of fresh Kiwi fruits from Iran due to the rise in pest-infested consignments.