ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 7. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran have agreed on the development of the Eurasian Agroexpress project, Trend reports.
According to the EAEU, an agreement between the parties was reached during a meeting at the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).
"As we agreed during the work on a full-scale free trade area between the Eurasian Economic Union and the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are putting all our agreements into practice," EEC Trade Minister Andrey Slepnev said during the meeting.
In this regard, he noted that the talk, in particular, was about the supply of EAEU products to Iran as well as the organization of large-scale transportation of Iranian vegetables and fruits to the markets of the EAEU’s countries.
According to him, the corresponding products are still on store shelves today. However, with the use of Eurasian Agroexpress, agricultural products will be delivered more quickly, with better quality and fewer intermediaries.
In turn, the First Deputy Minister of Agricultural Jihad of Iran, Alireza Peyman-Pak, proposed interaction with a large Iranian holding, which can either directly enter the project or act as a "single window" for organizing supplies of EAEU agricultural producers to Iran and exporting local products in the opposite direction.
"At the same time, we understand that, in addition to logistics, there are other issues that need to be addressed. These include mutual settlements, veterinary and phytosanitary control, and issues of transit through Iran towards the Persian Gulf countries and India," Andrey Slepnev said.
Following the meeting, the parties agreed to continue working in this direction, delegating the discussion of the specific format and details of cooperation to the directorate of the Eurasian Agroexpress project (ANO Eurasian Agrologistics) and the Iranian company.
To note, the initiative to implement a joint project of the EAEU member states for the implementation of accelerated rail and multimodal transportation Eurasian Agroexpress in order to develop regular mutual supplies of agricultural products and food, as well as export supplies in Asian and European directions, was supported by the Order of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council (EIGC) dated February 25, 2022. By order of the EIGC dated February 3, 2023, the project was scaled up to cover the routes of the North-South transport corridor.