GORGAN, Golestan Prov. – The construction of a petrochemical complex will start in Agh-Ghala soon after a suitable piece of land is located.

The National Petrochemical Complex (NPC) and the private sector will implement the 3,500-billion-rial project.

2nd Intl. Symposium on Saffron to be held in Mashhad

TEHRAN – The Second International Symposium on Saffron Biology and Technology will be held on October 28-30, 2006 in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, capital of Khorasan Razavi Province.

The First International Symposium on Saffron Biology and Biotechnology was celebrated in October 2003 in Albacete, Spain, with participants from 15 countries. Experts and biologists from Spain, Greece, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, and the UK will attend the three-day event. Iran is the major world producer and exporter of saffron. This delicate crop has provided a strong socio-economic association with the farmers of the Southern Khorasan, where almost all the Iranian saffron is produced. All who are associated with saffron in terms of production, processing, marketing and medicinal use are encouraged to attend.

Ethyl benzene unit comes into line at Pars Petrochemicals

BUSHEHR – An ethyl benzene production unit came on stream at the Pars Petrochemical Complex, which is located in Assaluyeh.

However, operations in this unit are due to start in a month. It will produce 645,000 tons of ethyl benzene for the styrene monomer unit of the complex. Work at the Pars Petrochemical Complex began six years ago in the Pars Special Energy Zone (PSEZ) in order to produce ethane, styrene monomer, and polystyrene. The complex feeds downstream petrochemical industries that make a wide range of stuff from rubber and paints to textile products.

Mazandaran’s one-month agro exports exceed 1600 tons

SARI, Mazandaran Prov. – Some 1,605 tons of agricultural products was exported from this northern province in the first month of the current Iranian year (Farvardin, March 21-April 20).

The exported volume mainly consisted of fruits, carrots, broccoli, and dried fruits. These were exported to Russia and Kazakhstan through Behshahr and Noshahr. Mazandaran, which has about 460,000 ha of farmlands, produces more than six million tons of farm and garden crops every year.