Joint meeting between the Director General of the Agricultural of European Commission and Iranian Activists in Agricultural Sector

On Sunday, April 23rd, 2017, Mr. Jerzy PLEWA, Director General of the Agricultural and Rural development of European Commission with his delegation came to Iran and had a meeting with the Chairman of Iran Feed Industry Association as well as a group of activists in agricultural sector.
Majid Movafegh Ghadirly referring to sanctions against Iran in recent years, said: "after the nuclear deal, connection with Iranian producers has been created and all areas are prepared for cooperation with other countries."
He stated that European companies own the technology, science and management, therefore our main demand is to provide the base of strengthen of knowledge and technology for Iranian companies. In this context Dr. Ghadirly offered some proposals for collaboration with EU Agricultural Sector. He referred to the high amount of live stock inputs import to IRAN including corn and soybean meal and proposed forming commercial joint companies in the field of production of grain and livestock inputs in Middle Asia with access guarantee to Iran.
Movafegh Ghadirly added that in Iran there are 645 Feed Mills whit production capacity of 21 million mt, however, their actual total production is 8.5 million mt, which this shows that our production is below 40% and also it shows that there is a great potential in our husbandry sector. Accordingly Iran and the Europe Union agriculture Commission can collaborate to produce protein products such as milk, meat and eggs with Halal brand and to profit Iran's share in neighboring countries as well.
In the following, Chairman of the Working Group of livestock, poultry and aquaculture of ICC also suggested for Creation of joint venture companies with export-oriented manufacturing and said Iran's poultry industry is among the top six countries and currently has more than 200 thousand tons of export capacity. He added that leading European countries in the livestock industry can help us to increase productivity and product quality of our products as well as price reduction so that our products can be exported.
Movafegh Ghadirly In another part of his speech emphasized on necessity of educational and research cooperation in different fields of husbandry and livestock industry. Further, referring to banking problems in establishing a business relationship with other countries he said that our government will solve this problem sooner or later.
Our goal is to facilitate the business relationship between Iranian businessmen and Europe
Jerzy PLEWA, Director General of the Agricultural and Rural development of European Commission stated that the aim of this trip is to facilitate business contact between the private sectors of Iran and the European countries.
Mr. PLEWA said: "we came to Tehran to provide a visit trip for a delegation of 40 businessmen of Europe to Tehran, which is scheduled for the month November (November). In this regard, recognizing the Successful Iranian companies in the field of agriculture is very important for us".
Mr. PLEWA continued: "European Union has the responsibility of Commercial regulators as well as the responsibility to facilitate the commercial relationship with merchants of other countries. Therefore Iranian businessmen during the visit of the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Phil Hogan, and his delegation in November to Iran, could launch joint activities in various fields, including agriculture. Director General of the Agricultural and Rural development of European Commission, said: We are aware of your limitations due to sanctions, but European companies need to evaluate Iranian companies for starting mutual cooperation, therefore, we suggest that first identify sectors that have high capacities; also in next trip we can bring our businessmen to Iran for B2B meeting with Iranian counterparts for considering joint venture opportunities.
This European official stated that we can help you in the context of research and innovation; also Iranian researchers can work with researchers from European Union as well.
Mr. PLEWA continued: "We are looking for win-win relationship. We'll have to see how we can help businesses on both sides. Investment and presence in the Iranian market happens if European traders can be able to anticipate the conditions as well as to access information such as tariffs transparent."
At the end Mr. PLEWA referring the banking problem said that some of the European businessmen in Iran informed us that many problems of the bank is due to the banking system of Iran and the Iranian side should try to fix the problems.