August 11, 2020

70 out of 400 animal feed importers in Iran active

There are currently 400 animal feed importing companies in Iran, but only 70 of them are active, according to a board member of the Iranian Association of Feed Importers.

Most of these companies are affected by banking and foreign currency issues and have to stop importing, said the board member, Davoud Rangi.

He noted that the importing companies make up 30-40% of Iran's feed market, with the rest of animal feed being imported by other bodies including Iran's Livestock Affairs Support Company.

In the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), Livestock Affairs Support Company contributed to 33% of the country's overall animal feed imports. The company imported only 10-12% of the country's feed requirements three years ago, Rangi said.

"The biggest problem of the Iranian feed market system is the lack of agility and slowness of processes," the official added.

Last month, another member of the Iranian Association of Livestock Feed Importers announced that the imports of animal feed dropped 31% since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20) up to late July, compared to the same period in the past year. Mohammad-Mehdi Nahavandi said that cornmeal import had a proper status in the mentioned time, while the imports of barley and soybean meals dropped.

Earlier in June, the managing director of Iran's Livestock Affairs Support Company, Hassan Abbasi Maroufan, said that more than 1.8 million tonnes of raw materials for livestock feed were supplied to the country's feed producers in 70 days since the beginning of the current year.

"Of course, the country's demand during this period was 2.2 million tonnes, which wasn't met due to the slowness of the transportation system following the coronavirus outbreak," the official said.

"Until a month ago, up to 15,000 tonnes of livestock feed was cleared from the customs every day and transported to the provinces, but now the daily amount of transportation has reached over 40,000 tonnes, which will soon fill the demand gap", Maroufan explained.

"There are currently 2.2 million tonnes of livestock food stored in the country's ports and are going through the process of health and standard controls for clearance and they will be on the market soon", he said at the time.

- Tehran Times