Mohammad Reza Karbasi, the deputy for international affairs of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA), underlined the need for launching a barter trade mechanism between Iran and Croatia to increase the volume of bilateral trade.
Karbasi made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Croatia’s Vecernji List daily newspaper.
He said the Iranian economic activists attach special significance to trade with the Balkans region.
Noting that Iran and the Balkans trade via third countries, Karbasi urged the need for direct trade between Iran and Croatia to reduce costs.
Asked to comment about a recent agreement signed between the two countries on Halal industry, the Iran Chamber representative said that the Muslim community constitute a large population of the Balkans countries. He referred to the need of the Muslim people for Halal food which he said is a good opportunity for Iran.
Karbasi said that Iran aims to make joint investments with Croatia on producing Halal products and exporting them to the European market.
Noting that Iran-Croatia trade was as few as $8 million in 2020, he attributed the low level of trade to the lack of knowledge of the businesspersons of both Iran and Croatia about the two countries.
He proposed activating barter trade mechanism between Iran and Croatia to help facilitate direct bilateral trade.
“I believe that given Croatia's good capacity and presence in various countries in the region and its membership in the European Union, we can increase the volume of trade between the two countries to more than $500 million in the next year,” he said.