Week in Brief 26.04.2019

Production of bi-fuel vehicles (gasoline and CNG) has dropped by more than 58 per cent in the past Iranian fiscal year, 1397, with respect to a year before, announces the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Both major automakers in Iran, Irankhodro and Saipa have registered 58 per cent drop in their bi-fuel vehicle productions, from 21 March 2018 to 2019.

IranKhodro Khorasan and IranKhodro Tabriz, two of main branches, have registered biggest drop reaching 62 per cent less production with respect to a year ago.

While Irankhodro had produced 102.5 thousand bi-fuel vehicles in 1396, this automaker production in this field dropped to 42,000 cars only.

According to this report, the only automaker in Iran which has faced growth in its bi-fuel vehicle productions, has been Farda automobile manufacturing in the province of Semnan. Farda company is mainly managed by the private sector.


Iran is among the top ten countries in the world facing natural disasters, claims Parviz Khosroshahi, Board Member of Bime Markazi of Iran (Central Insurance Company).

Despite this, only 7 to 5 per cent of the total houses in the country are insured against natural disasters.

According to Mr Khosroshahi, very few houses in regions who were hit by recent floods were insured and this makes the situation more dramatics for the government to reimbursed these victims.

“Unfortunately, the culture of insuring houses in the country is very much under-developed”, says Mr Khosroshahi. “We need the support of the law in order to be able to encourage more people to insure their houses, particularly in dangerous zones”.

He explains that if more people apply for insuring their houses, this gives the possibility to the insurance companies to obtain re-insurance. Something which is not much available now as the market is not developed enough and resources of insurance companies are very much limited.

Bime Markazi Board Member says that while insuring a car is obligatory, such requirements by laws at least in certain zones can help to increase the penetration rate of insured houses as well.


Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, located in southwestern of Iran is the number one producer of almond in the country. Last year nearly 24,000 tones of almond were harvested in its various gardens.

This year however the production is expected to be much less due to sudden cold over the past week.

The temperature in this region has reached -6 degrees Celsius over the past week and this cold has hit heavily several gardens. 37 per cent of gardens in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari is under almond cultivation which has been vastly hit by cold, according to Agricultural Ministry office in this province.

Although the gardeners were informed shortly about the cold coming, they are not much educated sa to how to protect trees against such unexpected cold. The actions taken at last in order to minimize the damage seem to have been too late.