NSZK entered into a long-term agreement on grain supplies to Iran – Kommersant

The production and export company EPT (part of the New Land Grain Corridor group of companies) signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Iranian logistics company IranianEurasia Trading and Logistics. The agreement is aimed at organizing long-term supplies of grain from the Russian Federation to Iran and “friendly” countries, reported press service “EPT”.

“According to the document, large-scale deliveries of grain to the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be carried out in specialized grain containers that are part of the “land grain fleet”; consumer goods, as well as food products, will be delivered in the opposite direction in the same special containers,” it says in a press release.

In addition, the agreement involves the construction of overland grain and transport and logistics infrastructure in the Sarakhs special economic zone. It is also reported that the document is a practical contribution to the development of the international North-South transport corridor.

According to market participants, the development of the North-South international transport corridor will allow increasing agricultural exports from the southern regions of the Russian Federation to 30 million tons by 2030. But the development of trade relations with Iran is hampered by the peculiarities of the organization of financial settlements, as well as the shortage of port facilities and ships in the Caspian Sea. Russian companies promise to tackle the latter problem in the near future. At the same time, the low cost of diesel fuel in Iran, which ensures low cost of road transportation, calls into question the profitability of railway projects.

Read more about the difficulties of exporting grain through Iran in the material “The southern corridor gets confused in the turns”.

Erdni Kagaltynov