Iranian Automakers Turn to Pistachio Sales

Mehdi Tabibzadeh, a member of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, announced on Sunday, October 7, that Iranian automakers have turned to selling pistachios. He told ILNA that automakers facing difficulties in securing foreign currency for importing parts have resorted to buying and exporting goods such as pistachios, copper, steel, and other items to obtain the necessary currency for imports. Tabibzadeh stated that in Iran, home appliance manufacturers and mobile phone importers have also engaged in this practice. This Chamber member explained that 'they buy copper from the commodity exchange and offer it in export markets, and they have no issues with paying any amount of customs duties because their goal and focus from exporting these goods is to import raw materials for production, and they have no commitment to market-making and marketing principles in the market for these goods, especially the pistachio market in Iran, and they may even proceed with transactions at a loss.' According to reports, this action has caused disorder in the pistachio market and has posed problems for genuine exporters. In response to this situation, pistachio exporters are trying to reach an agreement with automakers to withdraw from pistachio trade aimed at securing foreign currency and to prevent overlap in the activities of the two groups. A month ago, it was announced that car production in Iran had faced a 9.5% decline in the first five months of the current year. The Secretary of the Automakers Association, Ahmad Nematbakhsh, attributed this decline to insufficient foreign currency allocation from the government and power outages in the summer. Nematbakhsh criticized the Ministry of Industry's guidelines for securing foreign currency, deeming them flawed and stating that the amount of currency allocated to automakers is less than their actual needs. These statements come at a time when domestic automakers have long been unable to produce a significant portion of parts domestically due to market monopolization and reliance on government support and cheap currency, heavily depending on imported parts. Meanwhile, neighboring Turkey has gained a significant position in global markets with its substantial car exports. The newly created overlap in the pistachio export market is reported at a time when Iranian pistachios, recognized as one of the country's well-known non-oil export products, face severe declines in exports every year.