Nidera seeks more opportunities in Iran's grain market

TEHRAN, IRAN — Nidera executives will travel to Iran this week to visit customers and explore more b…

TEHRAN, IRAN — Nidera executives will travel to Iran this week to visit customers and explore more business opportunities, said Michel Dumoulin, a trader at Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Nidera BV, the Tasnim News Agency reported, citing a Bloomberg article.

"When the sanctions came in, you started to see some people shying off and not willing to take the risk anymore," he said.

"In the past six to eight months, we’ve seen a lot of new, small players in the Caspian Sea. Russian and Ukrainian companies, all entering the market in Iran,” Dumoulin said.

He said the end of sanctions doesn’t necessarily mean grain imports will rise and predicted more competition for business and lower profit margins.

In 1979, the United Nations, the U.S. and the E.U. imposed sanctions on Iran for policy reasons. But on July 14, the UN Security Council implemented the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), which will bring significant changes to the sanctions. It was supported by China, France, Germany, Russia, U.K., U.S. and Iran.

Food was not subject to sanctions, but the rules created enough difficulty to keep out many grain suppliers.

Nidera already ships as much as 3 million tonnes of grain and vegetable oils to Iran a year.

Following the recent nuclear deal between Iran and Russia, China, the U.S., Britain, France and Germany, foreign business executives and financial bodies are shuttling to Iran to lay the groundwork for investment and trade.

The comprehensive nuclear deal would terminate all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran after coming into force.