Need-to-be-discovered potentials of Iranian agriculture market

Population growth and world economic performance drive demand for agricultural products and
provide basis for having global vision for this sector and finding export market. Food and agricultural
exports have great contribution to the nonfarm economy, especially via their positive effects on
employment and off-farm agro-business. Agricultural products account for high volume of the
Netherland’s exports and Iran with more than 80 million populations also is a big and very attractive
market for Dutch entrepreneurs and trader. Years of sanctions against Iran, Isolated business
environment of Iran, but signing comprehensive treaty of Iran and 5+1 group have opened the doors of
investment heaven of Iranian market.

Advantages of Iranian business environment for Dutch Entrepreneurs and businessmen:

 Growing population of Iran that led to an increase in demand for grains that turned the country
to a net importer of grains. Iran is among the leading importing countries for rice, wheat, barley
and corn.
 Educated and high-skilled work force: Iranian agriculture universities are among the top
universities in Middle East and each year thousands of graduated students inter to the business.
 War-torn neighbor’s countries (Iraq and Afghanistan) with approximate population of 100
million are extremely dependent on Iranian agricultural products and they are also main trading
partner of Iran
 Government determination for reform and improvement of agriculture sector.Iran plans to
abolish its subsidies on food, thereby freeing more money for infrastructure improvements. In
its sixth Five-Year Development Plan (Sanade ChashmandazeToosee), aims to increase
agricultural production and recently has allocated 10 billion USD to the development of its
agriculture sector.
 Inborn capacity and potential of Iranian horticulture sector.Iran is among the top 10 countries
worldwide in terms of diversity of orchard products. Concerning the production quantity of
different agriculture commodity, Iran ranked among the top 5 producer of pistachio, fruit stone,
berries nes, Skins, Butter (Tabale 1).
 Iran product
4 Pistachios
4 Fruit, stone nes
5 Berries nes
8 Walnuts, with shell
10 Dates
12 Cherries, sour
13 Cherries
13 Eggplants (aubergines)
14 Cucumbers and gherkins
14 Watermelons
14 Silk-worm cocoons, reelable
15 Apricots
15 Figs
16 Melons, other (inc.cantaloupes)
17 Fruit, fresh nes
18 Almonds, with shell
18 Hazelnuts, with shell
18 Lettuce and chicory
19 Pumpkins, squash and gourds
19 Milk, whole fresh buffalo
19 Kiwi fruit
20 Anise, badian, fennel, coriander
Table 1- FAO,statistics. 2012

These products include fruits, vegetables, cereals, seeds and animal feed, which derived from
agricultural lands and gardens with or without processing or with minimal processing. The final products
of this sector also allocate part of the food industry export ach year.

According to the statistics of Iranian Customs in 2014, more than 6.8 billion USD (5,776,952 MT) of
Agricultural and food related products (Hs code 1 to 23 of Custom book) is exported .in the same time
12,1 Billion USD (23325240 MT) of agriculture products is imported to country and therefore Iran has
negative trade balance of about 5.3 billion USD.

Hs code Commodity export import Trade balance

6 Flowers 37,367,881 6,047,029 31,320,852
7 Vegtebales 818,264,285 105,729,458 712,534,828
8 Fruits 2,778,503,722 452,462,941 2,326,040,781
9 Tea, spices, coffe 294,890,855 306,109,225 11,218,370
10 Cereal 12,088,559 6,216,614,440 6,204,525,881
12 Oil seed 30,283,325 565,212,001 534,928,676
23 Animal food 64,816,661 1,379,492,397 1,314,675,735
Total agriculture pro 4,036,215,288 9,031,667,490 4,995,452,203

Total agri,animal, 6,857,646,964 12,148,841,754

As it has been shown in above table, in 2014 main percentage of Iranian exported commodity is belongs
to fruits and vegetables, and cereals, animal feed and seeds are leading imported products.

Iran Export Market

Rank product Importer Values ( Million

USD)
1 Pistachio Hong Kong, China 1623
2 Resin UAE 249
3 Saffron UEA 227
4 Date UAE 219
5 Watermelon Iraq 193
6 Apple Iraq 172
7 Tomato Iraq 159
8 Potato Turkmenistan 148
9 Cucumber Iraq 108
10 Onion, Garlic Iraq 101

As shown in above table. Hong Kong UEA, , Iraq and Turkmenistan are leading importing partner for
Iranian Pistachio, Resin, Saffron, Date, Watermelon, Apple, Tomato, Potato, Cucumber and onion. Due
to sanction and swift problem Iranian trader seize the opportune of UEA as re-exporter country for their
goods.

Rank Product Importer Values (Million $)

1 Wheat Swiss 2379
2 Corn Swiss 1773
3 Rice India 1409
4 Soya Swiss 1239
5 Barley UEA 502
6 Banana Turkey 408
7 Tea Sri lanka 247
8 Soya seed Swiss 186
9 Vegetable seed Swiss 94
10 Sunflower seed UEA 81