TEHRAN – The Secretary of the Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry’s Market Regulation Headquarters said over seven million tons of basic goods are already stored at the country’s ports and loaded on vessels waiting to be unloaded.

Speaking in a meeting of the mentioned headquarters on Monday, Abbas Ghobadi said over $20 billion has been paid by the government to the country’s importers of which $4.2 billion was for basic goods.

Referring to the recent turmoil in the country’s markets the official said: “The reports of today's meeting show that the approved price of vegetable oil is constantly being assessed in stores and the price of chicken is close to the approved price. Reports provided by the Agriculture Ministry have also raised hopes that chicken and egg prices will reach the approved price in the coming days.”

Ghobadi went on to say that since the beginning of this Iranian calendar year (March 20), about 14 million tons of basic goods, including 25 items of essential commodities, have been imported into the country, of which seven million tons have been cleared in the current quarter of the year (September 22- December 20).

Back in October, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) reported that the bank supplied $6.124 billion for importing basic commodities and medicine in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21).

Based on CBI data, the bank will supply a total of $8 billion for the imports of basic goods in the current Iranian calendar year, of which $5.5 billion is going to be allocated for major consumable goods like corn, oilseeds, crude oil, meal, barley and wheat, over $1.5 billion will be supplied for the imports of medicine, and about $1 billion is going to go to the imports of medical equipment.

EF/MA