Customs directors of Iranian provincial chambers of commerce convened on Thursday during which Hadi Tizhoush Taban, the head of Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce, said that Tehran and Moscow agreed on the green corridor system in 2016.
While Russia’s exports of agricultural raw materials to Iran have reached $6 billion, Iran has not been able to use all the capacities of the corridor, he said.
He noted that Iran’s failure to export agricultural products to Russia has been partly due to the economic activists’ lack of knowledge about the green corridor system.
Tizhoush Taban also referred to converting Astrakhan customs to a customs post, saying, “Many of our business dealings take place in Astrakhan. We ask the officials to negotiate so that Astrakhan would operate as an independent customs in Russia as before.”
After a common market was established in Astrakhan, the customs was degraded to a customs post, and this has delayed the clearance of Iranian goods, he said.
Goals of green corridor project
Also speaking in the meeting, Hossein Kakhaki, the director of International Cooperation Department of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), said that reducing the documents required for customs formalities, speeding up the formalities and minimizing the use of customs forms based on commodity information analysis within the risk management system and ultimately increasing trade between Iran and Russia have been among the goals of the green corridor project.
He said that the roadmap provided by the Russian side for the implementation of the green corridor project sees a maximum clearance time of 3 hours and 10 minutes for exports and 46 hours and 20 minutes for imports.
With the launch of green corridor system in customs between Iran and Russia, Iran exported some $772 million worth of goods to Russia in the first quarter of the fiscal year (March 21-June 22), posting a 49% growth compared to last year’s corresponding period, with Iran’s imports from Russia showing a 15% increase, the official said.