Goods in demand in the month of Ramadan will be under observation by inspection bureaus in order to prevent profiteering. Dairy, protein, rice, cooking oil, sugar, dates, fruits, vegetables, pastries, etc. have been announced to be under observation.
Yazdan Seif, the CEO of the Government Trading Corporation of Iran, said: “The stores of essential products such as wheat, rice, sugar and oil are sufficient to balance the market during Ramadan and we will increase production as much as necessary in order to prevent an increase in prices.”
He pointed to the rice stores and called them sufficient and continued: “30,000 tons of foreign rice is ready to be distributed to consumers at 2700 Tomans per kilogram (0.8USD/kg)”
On the other hand, Aliakbar Mehrfard, Deputy of Commerce at the Ministry of Agriculture told the national broadcaster, IRIB, that high quality foreign rice is expected to be sold to consumers at 3700 Tomans per kilogram.
Ali Bahremand, President of the Tehran Confectionary, Pastry and Café Union, announced a price hike for zoulbia and bamie –a traditional Iranian and Turkish sweet-: “On a directive from the Trade Chamber of Iran, the price of zoulbia and bamie was set as 12,000 Tomans/Kg for the current month of Ramadan. The union initially requested a 15% price increase compared to last year and finally an 8% increase was approved.”
The price of herbs for ash –an Iranian cuisine of a thick soup- will also remain constant this year due to sufficient supply. Hossein Mohajer, President of Fruit and Vegetable Retailers Union sees the only problem as the supply of onions: “Currently, onions are only being supplied by the town of Dezful, a city in Khuzestan Province; when the produce from Falavarjan County in Isfahan reaches the market, the market will become saturated.”
Currently, the price of white and yellow onions are 2700 and 2200 Tomans per kilogram.
