February 3, 2012

Iran's 400,000-tonne grain cargo gets stucked

For as long as three weeks, almost 400,000 tonnes of grain have been stranded on at least 10 ships outside ports of Iran brought about by the EU sanctions, according to trade sources.

"The myriad of sanctions have worked to the point where the Iranian banking system is virtually defunct, thereby not allowing international trade houses to receive workable letters of credit," one European grain trader said.

"Their ships are stopped while people figure out how to get payment done, it's a mess." The trader said. "The exporters cannot unload without payment as they would face multi-million dollar losses if they do not get their money," said another grain trader.